Fury
by SLynn
Summary: Third story following The Game and Despair. Xander tries to cope. Buffy protects. Constance returns. Giles researches... you get the point. FINALLY COMPLETE
1. Indiscretions

Fury by SLynn 

**Disclaimer:  **I own nothing but my own thoughts; everything else is borrowed from Joss Whedon, the writers, and ME, with the exception of Constance, she is entirely my own twisted creation.

**Rating:**  R

**Setting:**  Alternate Season 5.  Takes place immediately after "The Game" and "Despair".  It'll make more sense if you've read those two first.  

**Notes:**  Sorry it's taken so long, now on with the show.

*****

I know indeed what evil I intend to do,  
but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,  
fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils. 

                        **Euripides (484 BC – 406 BC), Medea, 431 B.C.**

We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman,—scorned, slighted, dismissed without a parting pang. 

                        **Colley Cibber (1671-1757), Love's Last Shift, Act 2**

Chapter 1:  Indiscretions 

It always started the same between the two of them.  First he'd wrap his arms around her and pull her close.  The smell of him was intoxicating.  Then he'd lean in and gently trail kisses up her neck until he finally found her mouth.  It was always gentle, soft kisses at first that escalated in intensity till the need overcame them both.  They held onto each other as if they were all that was left of the world.

After he'd whisper into her ear, "It's everywhere."

At this point she'd always have her eyes shut and for some reason she'd smile.

"It's everywhere Buffy.  Can't you see it?"

This is where she would try to stop herself.  To not look, but she knew that wasn't possible.  It was scripted somehow between them.  She had to open her eyes.  She had to look and it was always the same.

Blood.  Blood on him and on her.  Covering everything.   Everywhere she looked there was blood.

"We can't stop it."

****

"Xander!"

Buffy quickly checked the room unaware she'd just screamed.

"Damn," she muttered as she climbed out of bed.  Three nights in a row now she'd had that dream and each night the feelings it provoked grew more intense, both good and bad.

Buffy glimpsed the clock.  It was only 2:32 am, to early to wake her mom and sister by running the shower, so she headed downstairs instead.  Bored more then hungry, she flipped on the television and surfed through channel after channel of infomercials.

Going over and over the dream in her head she couldn't quite settle on which was more unnerving, the blood or the sex.  Either way she'd have no choice but to tell Giles now.  The first time she'd written the dream off as stress from the situation, the second time as a fluke, but three nights in a row had to be something more and she wouldn't make the same mistake of withholding information again just because it made her uncomfortable.

It had only been four days.

Four days ago Giles, with help from Willow and Tara, had sent Constance to some unknown hell dimension.

The first night Buffy had stayed with Xander at his place until morning.  They didn't talk much or even really sleep, they just kind of laid next to each other.  It had been reassuring.  Buffy had worried that Xander was going to go off the deep end, but he hadn't.  Not yet at least.

Since then he'd been staying with Giles and was never really left alone.  They were all terrified for him.  She knew that part of him must hate being treated like a child, but it couldn't be helped and he didn't really object. 

That probably bothered her the most, Xander really didn't object to anything now except for physical contact.  You couldn't so much as put a hand on his shoulder without him half jumping out of his skin.  That wasn't entirely true, she could touch him; he had no problem with that.  It was everyone else he seemed to have issues with.

Xander was making an effort though.  He wasn't isolating himself as he had before, which was good, but he also didn't seem to have much hope that they'd find a cure.  

Undoubtedly he _had_ changed, but none of them talked about it.  He had moments where he would seem so much like his old self that you could almost forget the horrible things that had happened in a few short weeks, but those moments were fleeting.  The majority of the time he sat quietly and stared at his hands or the wall.  When he did talk he had a hard time getting the words out, to the point where he sometimes stuttered worse then Tara once had.  On rare occasions he would talk to himself, mutter really, and that was the worst of it.  But always he seemed easiest when Buffy was around.

The phone rang and she found she was glad to be interrupted from such thoughts.  As quickly as she could she answered it knowing that there were only two types of calls at this hour, wrong numbers and bad news.

"Buffy?" asked Giles unmistakable voice.

"What's wrong?"  She had already expected the worst and was not disappointed.

"You need to come quick.  It's Xander."

"What happened?  Giles, is he okay?"  
  
"Yes… well, now he is… he tried… Buffy, you need to be here."

"I'm on my way," she said and hung up, nearly at once.  She wrote a note to her mom and pinned it to the refrigerator and then hurried to change.  All in all, she was out the door in less than five minutes.  The whole time she kept repeating the same phrase.  'Please be okay.'

****

Every light in the place was on when Buffy arrived at Giles' apartment not more then fifteen minutes after their conversation on the phone.  Buffy didn't bother to knock and called out upon entering.

"We're back here," she heard Giles yell from the downstairs bathroom.

Giles apartment had two bedrooms and two baths.  Xander had been more or less using the back room as his own for the past few days.  More or less because no one really believed he'd been sleeping at all, it was more like a place for him to go when everyone else slept.

Before she could go inside, Giles had rushed out and pulled the door nearly closed behind him.

"What's going on?  Was it a night…" Buffy stopped mid sentence and gasped, "Giles you've got blood all over you?"

"Yes, well," Giles tried to say.  The stuttering was apparently contagious, "I'm fine.  Xander's fine.  It looks worse then it is.  I probably shouldn't have called you but he was rather insistent."

"Did he try…"

"He won't tell me," Giles said looking down, "but I think so, yes."

Buffy said nothing.  They knew this could happen.  She took a deep breath and then stepped around Giles and through the door.

It hadn't occurred to her why Giles had met her at the door until she saw the room.  She hadn't been prepared for this.  The mirror above the sink was smashed and blood covered both items.  Xander, sitting with his head in his hands, had more blood on him then Giles had.  Giles obviously had tried to wrap his hands first with a towel before managing to get bandages around them.  The towel, bloody and disregarded, was lying in the bathtub.  For some reason she couldn't take her eyes from it.  It reminded her of Constance.  Constance had given Buffy Xander's blood soaked shirt once.  Now it was all she could think of.

"Buffy?"

His voice had roused her from the memory.

"Hey Xand," she said trying to sound normal.

"I didn't mean to do it," he said, his voice was thick with emotion.

"I know that."

"Does he want me to leave?"

"Of course not," Buffy said with real heart, "Xander, don't even think that.  Giles knows you didn't mean to do this.  He'd never ask you to go."

"He should."

"Why?  Why would you say that?"  
  


"Because I'm afraid…" he just trailed off and covered his face again.

"We're here for you," Buffy said placing her hand on his shoulder.

"It's everywhere."

Buffy nearly fell over.

"What did you say?"  
  


"It's everywhere Buffy.  Can't you see it?"

Despite herself, she took a few more steps back and was now staring at him horror struck.

"Why are you saying that?" she demanded.

He looked up at her and met her gaze.

"We can't stop it."

****

It had taken longer for Giles to settle Buffy down then it had for him to settle Xander.  Giles had cleaned up most of the mess.  Afterwards she'd told him, more or less, about the dreams.  It was now close to 6am and he still had no answers from her.  Xander was lying down, seemingly asleep, in the back room, and Buffy was sipping tea at the counter.

"So you've dreamt this?" Giles asked breaking the silence.

"Sort of," she said quietly not looking at him.

"Sort of how?"

"There was blood.  More then back there, covering everything."  
  
"And?"  He hated prodding her like this, she seemed genuinely affected, but he needed to know if he was going to help.

"He said exactly the same thing."  
  
"About the blood?"

Buffy thought about and shook her head.

"No," she corrected, sounding more like herself, "he never actually said 'blood was everywhere' he said 'it' was.  I just kind of assumed he'd meant the blood."

Giles nodded, hoping it would be enough encouragement for her to continue.

"He said 'we can't stop it'.  What do you think it means?"

"I'm not sure," Giles sighed, "You've had this dream three times now?"

Buffy just nodded.

 "Was it in the same context as tonight?"  
  
Buffy stared at him not really understanding.

"Did the dreams take place here, in the bathroom, with you and Xander?"

Now she blushed.  She wasn't about to go into 'what' had actually happened in the dreams.

"No," she said quickly, "I'm not really sure where they took place, but the exchange is always the same, that and the blood."

Giles either took the hint or figured it wasn't important enough to pursue.

"So, any ideas?" she asked after another few minutes of silence.

"I think I might have a theory."

She looked hopeful.

"But, I'd rather not discuss it until I'm sure.  I just need to look up a few things.  I think I can manage here now if you'd rather go home."

Buffy thought about it for a moment.

"No, I'll stick around if you don't mind.  Check on Xander."

He nodded and went up to his room for the books he'd need while she headed for Xander's.

****

He was facing the wall when he heard her come in.  He knew she would eventually.

"You're not sleeping, are you." She was across the room and she wasn't really asking.  She was stating fact.

"I can't," he said to her, rolling to his back so he could see her.

It was that time of morning just between darkness and light.  He could see her well enough to know where she was but not well enough to read the expression on her face.

"I scared you, didn't I?" he asked.

He felt her weight on the other side of the bed.  It was comforting and familiar.  He didn't have much of that left in his life.

"Maybe a little," she admitted.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be.  It's not your fault."  
  
"I'm really tired of hearing that.  It'd be easier if you'd just let me take the blame for some of this."

"Okay, then you can buy Giles a new mirror and we'll call it even."  
  


He knew she was only joking with him but he couldn't laugh.

"I'm serious Buffy.  I hate this.  You should have just let me do it that night."

"Stop.  I mean it Xander," she said, her voice nearly cracked, "don't say those things."

"You're just delaying it Buffy.  We both know it's going to happen."

She had nothing to say to that.

"Do you know what happened in there?  Do you remember any of it?" she asked.

"Not really."  

It wasn't a complete lie.

"Xander?"

She'd caught him.

"I remember going into the bathroom and…"

"And?"

"And I don't really want to talk about it," he finished.

She seemed all right with that.

"Xander?"  
  
"Hmm?"

"Do you remember what you said to me?"

"Yes."

"Why'd you say it?"  
  
He turned and looked at her.  Serious and somewhat confused.

"You don't know?"  
  
"Tell me," she asked.

"The dreams."


	2. Bound

Fury by SLynn 

**Notes:**  Wow, I honestly didn't expect such great feedback!  I'm kind of floored.  Thanks to everyone who reviewed.  I'm sorry this third installment took so long to start.  I had every intention of finishing a different story I'm working on (Infectious – Firefly fic) before beginning this one, but then I finally thought of a beginning I liked and here we are.  J

**Chapter 2:  Bound **

Buffy was shocked.  More then shocked, she was borderline appalled.

"You're having the dreams?" she finally managed.

"Aren't you?"

"Yes, but how did know that?"  
  
"I guessed," he answered as if they were having a completely normal conversation, "I'm not really certain how I knew, I just did.  You're always in them so…"  
  
"We don't need to go into details," Buffy blurted out feeling her cheeks go red.

Xander just nodded as if it didn't matter.

"So what do you think they mean?" he asked after a minute or two passed.

"It doesn't _mean_ anything," she said again quickly, "they're just dreams.  Dreams are like that."

Xander was now looking confused.

"Buffy, if we're having the same nightmare…"

"Nightmare?" she interrupted, "It's not that bad is it?  I mean, not _all_ of it."

He held her gaze for a moment.  For her part Buffy tried not to look _too_ outraged, but she couldn't help it.  Xander had basically just said having sex with her was a nightmare.  It wasn't the type of thing you recovered from quickly.    

"Mine are," he finally said giving up trying to interpret her expression and turning away.

Now it was Buffy's turn to look confused.  To be honest the physical part of the dreams hadn't bothered her really, only embarrassed her.  They were nice.  Nice might be a bit of an understatement, but she didn't want to delve.  For now that part was nice and she'd leave it at that.  There was too much going on to start thinking about things like that.

"What are yours about?" she asked.

"It's hard to say, they're always changing."

He was being evasive, but she was patient.  Buffy said nothing and just waited for him to continue, hoping he would.

"I'm in this place… it's not here, I'm not sure where it is but everything has this dull orange tint, like it's on fire or something.  And it smells… like sulfur… or death…it's foul."

Xander took a deep breath and almost seemed to will himself to speak.

"There aren't really buildings or places, just these holes, like creek beds I guess, with people packed into them, filled all the way…"

He stopped.  Buffy wasn't sure if he was going to keep going, the look on his face was terrifying.

"They're crammed in so close that they can't move, but they're screaming, all of them, and the noise and blood…"

"Xander…" Buffy said gently, rousing him from the trance he'd seemingly fell into.

"Constance is there.  Sometimes she's screaming too and… other times she's laughing."  
  


Xander began subconsciously tugging at the corners of his cast.  He did it now and again sometimes when he was uncomfortable.  Constance had healed it to the point where he'd be able to use it again, but not completely.  It was still fractured and would take some time before it would be completely whole.

"Go on," she encouraged emphasizing it by grapping hold of his good hand and affectively stopping his nervous habit.  He smiled a bit at her and continued.

"Constance, she doesn't seem to know I'm there.  At least I don't think she does.  A lot of time she's just watching that sea of people struggle.  I think she finds it amusing.  Always, before the dream ends, you're there too, but you don't seem to know it.  You have your eyes shut and you look… you look….I guess peaceful, it doesn't seem to bother you, none of it.  And when I talk you smile, but as soon as you open your eyes…"

She knew the rest.

"So what happened tonight?  What made you go into the bathroom?"  
  


He was still reluctant to talk about it, but she persisted.

  
"I just wanted it to stop."

She nodded and turned from him briefly.  It was another one of their new rituals.  She'd turn away and pretend to find something interesting to look at on the wall or on the floor while he wiped his eyes and pretended he hadn't started to cry.

"Buffy, I'm having them while I'm awake now."

Part of her went cold.

"I was awake tonight when it happened, watching television.  At first I thought that I must have drifted off, that I really was asleep.  But I wasn't.  It was coming in all around me, the strange colors, the smell, and the…. I think I tried to run from it, but it just swallowed me.  It was everywhere."

"How long has this been happening?"  
  


"That was the first time," he said shaking his head.  He was shivering now.  So was Buffy.

"Do you think I'm dreaming about where they sent her?" he asked.  Xander sounded almost like he was sorry for her.

Buffy didn't trust herself to answer that; she had no sympathy for that woman.  Instead she changed the subject.

"When we talked in the bathroom, were you there then?  Were you inside it?"

"I don't know.  I really don't."

They both remained still, just staring straight ahead.  His hand in hers.

 "I don't know if I'm here now Buffy."

****

Giles had been explaining what had happened to a horrified Willow and Tara when Buffy came from the back room later that morning.

"He's not seriously hurt.  I think he must have used his cast…"

"Buffy," Willow cut him off when she spotted her, "how is he?"

Buffy kind of shrugged, not sure what to say.  It had been a long, long morning.

"Did he tell you anything more?" Giles asked.

This is what it was like now.  Xander would only really talk to Buffy, so it was her job to relay information back to the rest of them.  The only problem with that was she was never certain how much of it he really wanted them to know.  It put her in a bad position.  She wanted him to trust her and keep talking, it was about the only thing keeping him grounded, but she also wanted him to get well.  And the only way he was going to get well was if she spilled his secrets to the others.  The whole thing was beginning to wear her out and it hadn't even been a week.

"I think we need to seriously reconsider a sleeping aide for him," she said as she sat down heavily on the couch.

"That bad?" Tara asked really concerned.

Buffy just nodded, but Giles was already shaking his head.

"We can't Buffy, I'm sorry.  We've discussed it and it's not an option."  
  


"Giles, he's barely getting enough sleep to function," Buffy began, "He's having dreams like mine, only worse.  Much worse."

Giles seemed to perk up at this.

"Really?"  
  


"You're having nightmares?" Willow asked, "Like prophecy nightmares or the garden variety?"

Buffy didn't know what to say.  She wasn't sure if she could answer that, how to answer that.  Luckily, Giles rescued her.

"This is interesting."  
  


"Well, I'm glad _you_ think so.  I'll go out on a limb and assume Xander would agree with me in saying that they wouldn't be quite _so_ interesting if you were the one having them."

Giles seemed to snap back to reality.

"No, of course not.  Not interesting good, it's just that I was reading something earlier about this sort of thing.  I wasn't sure if it was the case but now…  You say they're identical, your dreams and his?"  
  


Buffy managed to remain composed.

"Not identical, but they end the same."

Giles gave her a funny sort of look as she said it, one that went unnoticed by Willow and Tara, one they weren't meant to see.  Buffy understood it, he was on to her.  He had figured out why she had been so reluctant to relate the whole of her dreams to him.

"How are they different?" Tara asked innocently unaware of the turmoil the question caused her.

Buffy blushed.

"They're… well… it's hard to say."

Giles actually had the nerve to smirk as the others sat eagerly looking to Buffy to fill them in on the details.

"It's not important," Buffy said in a hurry redirecting them back to Giles, "you said you thought you figured it out right.  So what does it mean?"  
  


Clearly Giles was done playing.  His face grew somewhat stern as he spoke.

"I believe that the link Constance created to Xander is stronger then we thought."

The three of them sat still, absorbed in his words.  Not weeks earlier Xander had offered up his soul in exchange for Buffy's life to Constance.  While she had obtained it for only minutes it had been long enough to allow her a way back into the world after her demise.  She'd formed a bond between the two of them and she was powerful.  So powerful in fact her parting gift had been to curse Xander with the Furies Poison, a powerful spell that ultimately drove the inflicted mad.  Thinking that it was already too late to save Xander, Giles undid a binding ritual to hold Constance to this dimension and instead sent her to another.  Only afterwards did they find out that Xander had lied to them just to be rid of her, never believing she would cure him or leave the others alone.

"Whether or not Constance knows it now, they are still connected.  The dreams, especially the one last night, are a strong indication of it.  The connection should have severed when she was bound to another world, but somehow she held on."

"So what does this mean?" Willow asked, "She's coming back?"

Willow didn't know if she should be hopeful or angry.  If Constance returned she could lift the curse.  She was technically the only one who could.  Willow had poured through book and book and found no other answer.  If Xander were ever going to get better Constance would have to be the one to cure him.  She hated Constance.  Hated her more then she thought herself capable of, but she was it.  She was the only answer.

"Not necessarily," Giles answered.  "That is one of the scenarios.  The best possible outcome would be that the link would just fade naturally.  If Constance isn't aware of it that just might happen."  
  


"What else could?" Buffy asked growing concerned.

"Constance could use it as before and possess Xander's body.  Even that we could deal with."  
  
"Why do I feel like there's a _but_ following that sentence," Willow said apprehensively.

 "But," he continued nodding his head, "what we could not deal with is the reverse."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.

"There is the possibility that Constance could use the link to pull Xander into her dimension."

"Could she really do that?" Tara asked sounding scared.

"Giles, what do we do?" Willow asked nearly at the same time.

Buffy said nothing.  She was thinking about the words Xander had used to describe what had happened that night.  He said it felt like it had swallowed him.  She shuddered as she remembered his description of the place.

"It's happening," she said out loud without really meaning too.

"Buffy?" Willow called turning to her.

"She's going to do it.  The dreams.  He said they're happening now while he's awake.  It's why he's been trying to stay awake, but now even that's not working.  Constance must know now, she's going to pull in."

"We have to stop it," Willow said with some uncertainty, "don't we?"

Giles hadn't heard Willow; he was looking at Buffy deeply concerned.

"There's more," he began again, "Buffy, I think there is also a link between you and Xander."

There were so many things the three of them wanted to say, but only Buffy spoke.

"How?" 

"I believe that when Xander sacrificed himself for you he inadvertently created a bond.  That would explain why he's more himself around you.  Ordinarily, this the exact type of thing we'd need to help combat the Furies curse.  It would normally help him stay grounded and fight it.  However, in this case…"

"Don't you think I'd know if Xander and I had some sore of mystical connection?  That sounds like something I might notice."

They all looked at her skeptically.  They'd all seen her behavior lately and it wasn't normal.

"I would."

"Buffy," Giles began again, "you haven't exactly been acting rationally concerning Xander these past weeks and the bond, if it exists, would explain that."

"That doesn't prove anything," Buffy countered, "we've all been acting different.  We've had too."

"The dreams."

She was trying hard to doubt it, but she knew the dreams were more then just typical.  They were proof of something more; she just didn't want to admit it.

"Buffy, he's been calling out to you in these dreams.  Getting your attention.  Probably without realizing he was."

It had definitely got her attention.

"The part of your dream that you say is identical to his, it's because it is his.  He's pulling you into his dreams Buffy."

Willow and Tara were entirely too quiet.  She needed them to talk, say something.  Anything.  It was too much right now to have them all focusing on her.

"It's why you can't be around him any longer."  
  
Buffy looked at him.  Glared at him.  It only served to confirm what Giles suspected.  Buffy was always protective of her friends and family, but this was overkill.  

"Why?  You can't do that Giles.  I'm the only one he trusts right now.  I'm the only one he talks too.  You'll be isolating him.  I won't let you do that."

Willow looked a bit hurt by this but said nothing.

"Buffy," Giles said with all seriousness, "I'm not trying to be mean.  It's for your own good.  Both of yours."

"How could this possibly be good?" Buffy practically yelled.

"The further away you are the weaker the bond should become."

"That hasn't seemed the case with Constance?"

"True," Giles agreed, "However Constance had possession of Xander's soul.  And while a slayer is powerful, I think we can agree that Constance might be more so.  She has made effort to continue it."

"But he wouldn't hurt her Giles," Willow contended feeling the need to add something and defuse the situation.  She hadn't seen Buffy so angry in some time.

"That's right," Buffy said.

"No, not intentionally.  But if Constance does pull him over, Xander could very well take you with him."

  
  



	3. Denied

Fury by SLynn 

**Notes:**  I have no excuses for taking so long.  Sorry for the wait.

**Chapter 3:  Denied**

"Giles you can't be serious?" Willow asked.

Someone had to say something.  For a good five minutes there had been silence following Giles' revelation.  Buffy and Giles had just locked glares and neither looked like they were about to back down anytime soon.

"Giles?" Willow implored.

"I am serious," Giles answered without looking away.

"So what am I suppose to do?  Abandon him?"

It was as if Buffy saw no one else but Giles.  She was so intent on him, so visibly upset that it made him wonder if perhaps the bond had been _so_ strong that the Furies poison might have infected her as well.

"No one is asking you to do that," he tried to reason.

"That's exactly what it sounds like."

"Buffy please."

"How can you be so certain?" Willow interjected.  She was beginning to see Giles' point, but didn't want it to appear as if they were all against her.  This was not normal Buffy behavior.

Buffy finally took notice of her again and nodded her agreement.

"Well try a test."

They all seemed all right with the idea.

"Okay," Buffy asked, "what kind?"

"Well, first we'll need to stop by the shop and pick a few things up.  I'll have to do so research, so if you wouldn't mind watching the front, we should be ready by this evening."

Buffy looked skeptical.

  
"What about Xander?"  
  


"He'll stay here," Giles said grabbing his coat, "Willow and Tara, I'm certain, won't mind.  Right?"

As Buffy turned to face them looking as if she hoped it _would_ be a problem, Willow saw the look.  Giles distinctly gave her a 'go along with me' look.  He must be really nervous about this whole 'bond' thing.

"No problem at all," Tara said.  She must have caught it too.

Buffy looked a bit disappointed, but agreed.  Giles did need the help, she reasoned, what with Anya no longer around.

Buffy hadn't thought much about Anya in the last few days.  Ever since she heard about her little vanishing act the night Constance was sent away, she was sort of glad.  Buffy didn't think she'd be able to stop herself from giving Anya a good slap across the face if she had run into her.

"I should probably go tell him I'm going then," Buffy said as she started towards the hall.

"You wouldn't want to wake him," Willow said rather quickly, hoping she hadn't just blown it.

"Yeah," Tara added, "he's probably resting."

Buffy furrowed her brow but didn't continue towards the room.

"Okay then," she said as she left, "we'll be back soon."

"Bye," Tara called to them as they left.

"That was weird," Willow said as soon as they were gone.

"Do you think Giles is right?"

"He must be, you saw Buffy.  I mean, we both like Xander and we're all worried about him, but she's like obsessed."

"She was being a bit motherly."  
  


"Yeah," Willow said as she sat down on the couch, "Oh that reminds me, I forgot to talk with Giles about the what we found."  
  


"We'll talk to him tonight sweetie," Tara said instantly understanding what she meant.

"I guess you're right," Willow said a bit down.

Tara and Willow had been doing research on the Furies the last few nights.  They'd found out a lot in the last few days but nothing significant, until last night.  They found something they thought might actually help Xander.  The Furies, or Erinyes, were Roman and Greek punishers of crime.  But not just any crime, they specifically dealt with punishing sinners who escaped human justice.  Almost like vengeance demons.  And like most vengeance demons they had a specialty.  Theirs was matricide.  Xander, while not a saint, was definitely not on par with the average Furies victim.  Willow had thought if they could only plead his case they might have a chance of getting _the Furies_ to lift the curse.

"It can wait," Willow added.

  
In a way she was glad.  She wasn't really certain Giles would go along with her idea.

"Do you think…" Tara began and then stopped abruptly.

"What?"

"No really, it was a bad idea."

"No.  I won't think it's bad.  I'm sure it's a good idea."

"Okay," Tara began again hesitantly.  "Do you think, maybe, we should ask Anya?"

The look on Willow's face clearly showed her dislike.

"She was a vengeance demon," Tara said in an attempt to explain her rationale, "and aside from Giles, she's the only one who knows anything at the Furies Poison."

Willow just nodded.

"It couldn't hurt to just ask, right?"

"No you're right," Willow finally agreed, "it couldn't.  I don't think she'll help, but we could at least ask."

Tara smiled.  She hadn't liked what Anya had done any more then Willow or the rest of them, but they were trying to save Xander here.  They didn't have time for disagreements.

They had to work together, like it or not.

"I'll go," Willow said suddenly.

"Now?" Tara asked unable to hide the surprise in her voice.  "What about Xander?  We can't just leave him."  
  


"No and you won't.  I'll go.  Alone."

Tara wasn't sure she liked the look on Willow's face.

"Are you sure?  Maybe you should wait.  Maybe I should go."

"I'll be fine."  
  


It wasn't exactly _Willow_ Tara was worried about.

"And I won't do anything to her," Willow continued, reading the look on her girlfriend's face.

"If you're sure."  
  
"I am," Willow said as she readied herself to go, "I won't be long."

As Tara watched her leave she had the sinking feeling that she should have gone with her first instinct.  She should have never brought up Anya.

****

Xander hadn't meant to eavesdrop.  He really hadn't.  But when he had left his room he had heard Giles and the others talking about him and he'd stopped.

He didn't like them constantly talking about him when he wasn't around.  It made him uncomfortable.  But this conversation had been especially unnerving.

If it was true it would explain a lot.

The dreams were terrifying.

The first time he'd shut his eyes after Constance's disappearance he'd begun to have them.  He was always caught in a sea of people, pushing and pulling.  Ripping and tugging at him.  Every last one of them covered with blood.  And Constance was there always out of reach, laughing or screaming; he wasn't sure which.  It seemed no matter which way he wanted to go he was being pushed the other.  He felt that if he could just reach Constance it might all end.  Then, without really knowing it he'd find himself wishing someone else was there with him.  Then he'd begin calling for help, actually yelling was more accurate.  And Buffy always showed up.  Her presence seemed to always calm him and wake him from the dreams.  In a way it allowed him a way back.  Until last night.

Even after she showed up in his dream last night, the one that happened while he was still awake, he'd remained behind.  Not entirely, the real world had seemed to seep in around him, just as the dream world once had.  If was as if he was neither really here nor there.

Now back in his room, Xander paced.

He was conflicted.  Extremely conflicted.  He knew that the best thing for him to do would be to leave.  If he was hurting Buffy, well he couldn't stomach that thought for long.  He had to be strong.  He had to do this.  And if Giles thought that distance might do the trick, then he'd be willing to try it.  

It was going to be hard.  Xander had come to rely on Buffy, heavily rely.  She hadn't been lying when she'd said that she was the only one he trusted.  It was true.  Not that he didn't trust Giles and Willow, or even Tara; he just didn't trust them in the way he did Buffy.  Not anymore at least.

So he'd go.  He didn't know where and he didn't know for how long, but he'd go.

  
Xander finally stood still but not because he was decided.  He stood still for an entirely different reason.  

He felt it coming.

It was distant, but it was approaching.  Almost like a wave.  

And he heard it now.

Voices.  The sea of voices.

The were whispering now, still far away, but closer then they had been.  Soon they'd be so overwhelming loud he wouldn't be able to think.

It was just like last night only this time it felt more real, less dreamlike.  This time he was certain he was awake.

The room began to lilt to one side as Xander found himself on the floor.

He was nauseous and terrified.

Everything looked orange.  And the smell.  He smelt death everywhere.  Rotten, like decaying leaves.  Or burnt hair.

Backing himself against the wall by the bed, Xander began to take deep breaths.  He tried to calm himself, all the while remembering not to call for help.  Not to even think of _her_.  He would not take her in with him this time.  He would not.

And the calmer he became the cleaner the air began to smell.

And then the voices began to grow distant again.

He was seeing clearer now.  Nearly normal.

It felt like the tidal wave was receding.

Xander took a few more deep breaths.  It was the nearest he'd been to happy in a long, long time and it felt good.

He'd done it.  He'd stopped it.

"That wasn't so…"

Xander let out a yelp as he saw an arm, yellow and rotting, reach from under the bed and grab hold of his leg.

"No," he started to yell, but it was too late.

Some things would never be denied.

****

"Xander?" Tara asked from the behind the door after knocking for the third time.

She silently debated on whether or not to peek in at him.  She had heard him talking, rather loudly about something she didn't quite catch.  Worse, she thought she'd heard him scream.

She made up her mind and opened the door.

"Are you awake?" she asked.  The room was kind of dark, but she didn't want to risk the light in case he was sleeping.  She couldn't be certain since Xander seemed to like the dark lately, always keeping the curtains drawn and most of the lights off.

The further she got into the room, the odder it seemed.  Something wasn't right.  Tara grew certain that Xander was not in his bed.  And the room smelt funny to her.  It was an odor she couldn't place, but not a pleasant one.

She turned on a lamp sitting on the nightstand.  It gave off just enough light for her to see that not only the bed, but also the room was indeed empty.

Tara was on the edge of panic.  She called out to him a few more times, not really knowing why.  He obviously wasn't here.  

She pulled back the curtains and began a quick search of the room.  Next, she tried the bathroom.  Then Giles' room upstairs.  Xander was not in the apartment and Tara had no idea what she was going to tell Willow and the others.

She stood in the doorway telephone in hand trying to find the willpower and the words to do it when she saw something.

On the carpet, near the bed, was a stain of some sort.

She got closer, all the way to the floor, and just stared at it.

It wasn't a big stain, but it was enough for her to feel that she had never really been frightened until now.

It was blood and it was fresh.

Tara put down the phone and prepared herself to check the one place she hadn't.

She did it quick, reasoning that that was best.  Like ripping off a Band-Aid.  Whipped back the bedspread while she still had the nerve to check where the blood had came from.

She might have been less surprised to have actually found Xander, dead or alive.  

As it was, all she saw was nothing.  And nothing had never seemed emptier.


	4. The Praxidikae

Fury by SLynn 

**Notes:  **Again, thank you and thank you for all of the reviews.  Sorry for the sort of cliffhanger in the last chapter.  I'd tell you that it won't happen again, but that would be a lie.

Chapter 4:  The Praxidikae 

Anya had not been happy to see Willow at her door.  She nearly slammed it on her, would have if Willow hadn't been quick enough to wedge her foot in first.

"Go away," Anya called still trying to push the door shut between them.

"It's not like I want to be here."  
  


"Then why are you here?" Anya said pulling the door full open.

"I need information."

Anya looked unmoved.

"For Xander."

That seemed to do the trick.  Anya's features visual softened and she stepped back to let Willow inside.

"I need you to tell me about the Furies."

"So go google it," Anya said with a dry laugh, "you don't need me for that."

Willow just rolled her eyes.

"I need to know more then that.  I need specifics.  I need to know if they were vengeance demons."

"Oh," Anya said taking a seat, but not offering one to Willow.

"Yeah, oh."  Willow said sitting anyway.

"Okay.  They aren't vengeance demons.  They're older then that.  Much older."

"Do they curse people like vengeance demons?"

"Not exactly."  
  
"So what exactly?"  

Willow was never sure if Anya was just natural evasive or just couldn't form detailed explanations.  Maybe it was just another annoying hang-up from her demon life.

"It's hard to explain."  
  


"Anya, try."

"I am trying," she said exasperated.

Anya began to pace as she spoke.

"The Furies are stronger then vengeance demons.  They are the Praxidikae.  The Vengeful Ones.  But they're more then that too.  And they're not called on by people, they're just not.  Normally just by gods."

"But they punish people."

"Yes.  They do.  That's what's so odd.  They usually only punish murderers.  Xander…"  
  


Willow let her trail off.  Clearly she hadn't been the only one going through that thought process.  Anya was obviously still concerned enough to have been thinking about it.  It didn't make Willow dislike what she'd done any less, but it did make her think a bit better of her then before.

"That's what I thought," Willow added, "Everything I've read says they only punish murders and traitors.  Xander's neither of those things."

Anya nodded her agreement and sat back down again.

"How do you think she got them to do it?"  Willow asked.

"No way she could of that I can see."

The two women sat there in silence.

"So, what are you all doing for him?  Is he still alright?"

Anya had been careful not to say his name again.  She didn't think she could at this time.

"We're looking into it still.  So far he's fine."

Willow decided against telling her how bad off Xander really was.  Anya had clearly shown she didn't want to be fully apart of this by walking out that night, but it would just be cruel to fill her in on the details.

"Sorry I couldn't help."

Anya really meant it and Willow knew that.

"Thanks anyway," Willow said with a small smile as she got up to leave.

"Willow," Anya called before she got completely out the door, "it'll start with nightmares."

"What?"

"The Furies.  They always plague the dreams first.  That's when you'll be able to tell when he's starting to get bad off."  
  
Willow stopped cold. 

"Is he having them already?" Anya asked, her voice sounded scared.

Willow nodded but barely.  She was too busy thinking that Giles might have been wrong.

****

Awhile before the phone rang Buffy felt something was wrong.

It was a sense of foreboding that washed over her.  It was the type of feeling that made you want to call all of your loved ones just so you could verify their continued existence., but she knew the only person she had to call was Xander.

Xander was the only one she knew of in any danger.

Just as she had decided herself on heading directly back to Giles apartment the phone rang.

The look on Giles' face said it all.  Buffy's fears were proved in that moment.

"What is it?" she said the instant he hung up.

Giles just seemed to be staring off into nothing.

"It's Xander, right?"  
  


"Yes, it is."

"Giles, speak!"

"He's gone."

****

  
Tara hung up the phone.

She wasn't entirely sure what she had said to Giles.  She was sure that nearly half of it hadn't made sense.  Tara felt unglued.

Xander had been here.

Tara had heard him.  Here.  In this room.

It gave her the chills.  She noticed the sudden cramped ness of the room.  It was stifling in here.  And the smell.  She suddenly placed it.  This room was death.  

She couldn't stay here.  

Tara got up and without looking back went to the hallway.  That wasn't good enough to escape the place so she shut the door behind her but it still wasn't enough.

'Maybe I'm the one going insane,' she thought.

She'd remembered reading somewhere that if you could ask yourself that question then the answer was no but she was seriously having doubts about that.

Tara found herself pacing the hallway and inexplicably stopping in front of the door every few steps.

She decided to wait for them outside.  If they asked, she'd be honest.  She'd have to be; there was no way to hide it.

Tara was petrified.

****

Giles had probably never driven an automobile so fast before in his life.  Well, certainly not the one he currently owned.  He was amazed that they hadn't gotten pulled over.

Buffy didn't seem to mind.  In fact, Buffy kept urging him to go faster.

When they arrived Tara was outside waiting in the courtyard.  She looked shaken and was still holding the phone.

"Tara," Giles began, "are you alright?"

Buffy didn't even break stride, just kept heading towards the apartment.

"I…I…I…"

It was all she could get out.  She finally gave up and nodded.  Giles wrapped a protective arm around her and ushered her back inside.  Buffy hadn't waited on them and was already in Xander's room.

"What happened?" he asked stopping in the living room and helping her to sit.

"I heard Xander," she started slowly, "I went to check on him and he was gone."

Giles looked towards the hallway.  He assumed Buffy would be back by now, having first checked for herself.

"What else dear?"

"Tara?"

Willow's voice had startled them both. 

Seeing her caused Tara to loose all sense of control she had.  She couldn't hold it in any longer and started to cry.

"What happened?" Willow asked Giles as she took Tara into her arms.

"I'm not sure yet," he answered.

"Willow…" Tara began but was cut off by a call from the back room.

"Giles!" Buffy yelled, "I need help."

Giles exchanged a quick look with Tara who, if possible, looked even more frightened then before.

"What…"

Willow didn't have time to ask, Giles had already left.

"Baby, what's going on?" she asked Tara instead.

All Tara could do to respond was shake her head.

****

As Giles made it into the room he saw Buffy kneeling in the corner.

"Don't turn on the light," she said without facing him.

He made his way across the room; the only light on was the bedside lamp.  He could see the bedspread turned up just as Tara had left it.  He could even make out the blood.  Giles knew why she'd been so worked up.  It wasn't so much the disappearance as it was the room.  It felt off.  The room felt like a tomb.

As he continued into the room he saw that there was something in the corner.  Something Buffy was near.  Huddled.  The closer Giles got the more he recognized it to be Xander.

Buffy was sitting beside him, carefully avoiding touching him in any way.

Giles never thought Xander looked more like a boy then he had now.  He sat rocking slowly with his head in his hands.  He was muttering something no one could hear and his eyes were shut tightly.  Worse still, his sleeves and pant legs were nearly ripped to shreds and bleeding.  Nothing looked too deep, but he was bleeding from various scratches on his arms, legs and face.

"What…where was he?" Giles asked confused, kneeling down just behind Buffy.  "Tara said he was gone."

Buffy finally looked over at him for a moment.  Her face was cold and accusing.

"He was there."


	5. Into the Fog

Fury by SLynn 

**Notes:**  I'm setting goals for myself.  My goal is two chapters a week.  I can't guarantee I'll make it, but I do guarantee to try.  

**Chapter 5:  Into the Fog**

This was bad.

It was so very, very bad that Giles didn't have words strong enough to express it.  

Xander hadn't spoken one intelligible word in three hours.  Tara, who had been deeply shocked at Xander's disappearance, was completely overwhelmed by his reappearance.  So much so that Willow, who had remained the calmest by far, offered to take her home to rest.  And Buffy, Buffy was very, very angry.  Mostly with Giles.

At the moment he couldn't blame her.  She had every right to be, Giles was angry with himself as well.

He hadn't counted on it happening so fast.  He had hoped they'd have time to find something to ground him here.  Something to keep Constance from pulling him over.

There was nothing for him to do now but keep researching.  There had to be a way.  Over and over he kept telling himself that.  And he knew they would because he had caught hold of one small shred of hope.

While Willow and Tara had spent large amounts of time pouring through information on the Furies, Giles had spent his free hours looking up Constance.  Just the other night he had re-finished the council's papers for a third time.  It's what had first given him the hope.

The more he read the more he became convinced that Constance was a very powerful Wicca, perhaps even a sorceress, and had been one even before being called as a slayer.  She certainly knew enough about spells and magic.  At first he'd doubted it given the animosity she showed Willow and Tara and the general way she'd spoken of witches.  But the more Giles thought it through the more he saw her attitude as more of a ruse.  And the further he thought on it, it wasn't really Tara so much as Willow she seemed to have a grudge with.

Possibly she envied Willow.  

Constance in her own way had shown Buffy a bit of respect since they had both been slayers, but she really never considered her an equal.  Constance thought much to highly of herself to consider _anyone_ an equal.  She had obviously taken a bizarre interest in Xander, Giles didn't dare delve deeper into that.  As for Tara, Anya and himself, well she had hardly noticed our presence except when our grief provided her amusement.  

But Constance had never let an opportunity slip when she could take a jab at Willow.  It was almost personal.  She'd even gone out of her way to purposely weaken her before she demanded the binding ritual; maybe in an effort to stop Willow from trying anything.

Possibly she feared Willow.

Fear would be better then envy.  Because if Constance did fear Willow then that meant she had to have a weakness and Giles liked that thought.

It let him hope.

****

After a few hours when everyone was calmer, they all sat around Giles' table.  Almost all, Xander choose the living room couch.  It was a rarity for the four of them to be alone anymore.  For it just to be the four of them.  Not that this was anything like the old days.  

Xander didn't participate at all in their discussions.  For a few minutes there was no discussion as no one spoke.  No one knew where to begin.

"I think it's the Furies," Willow said suddenly breaking the silence.

Buffy and Giles turned to her.

"I don't think Constance is doing this," she continued.

"Go on," Giles urged.

"Okay.  It's just, Tara and I have been reading a lot about them.  This is something they would do.  They punish and torment.  No one except their victims really know how, but the do drive them insane.  Maybe this is it."  
  
"So fast?" Buffy asked clearly shocked.  She hadn't counted on it being so fast, in a way it almost made her wish it was Constance.  They could probably fix that.

Willow just kind of shrugged.

"I don't know for certain," she explained, "but I did talk with Anya today."

Buffy rolled her eyes dismissively.  Even Giles didn't seem pleased to hear that name.

"I know," Willow acknowledged, "I know.  But she was helpful.  The way she explains it is that the Furies can't just be unleashed on anyone.  That person has to do something really horrible first.  The Furies are impartial, they don't judge the way vengeance demons do."

"But Xander…"  
  
"I know," Willow said cutting Buffy off, "he hasn't done anything that bad.  Ever.  Then I started thinking about it some more.  About that bond stuff.  Furies specialize in betrayal.  Righting wrongs that go unpunished by traditional laws.   Wouldn't they have sensed the bond?  And technically, Xander did get rid of her.  Knowingly or not, he tricked her and because of it she died, sort of."

 "Yes," Giles began nodding his head, "that makes sense.  They could have seen the bond as a deeper connection, possibly even as a blood relative.  They wouldn't have cared that it was only a temporary death, all they care for is the act not the outcome."

"So now what?" Buffy asked.

"We still do the linking spell," Giles answered, "We need to be certain these bonds exist.  We'll need Xander to be present, but he won't have to do anything really.  You too Buffy.  Willow and I can perform the spell, it's fairly simple.  We'll use this table here…."  
  


"Willow needs to sit here."

Xander's voice had startled them.  No one had noticed him approach the table and he was now standing directly behind Giles.

"She needs to be east."

They were all staring at him.  It was the most he'd spoken to anyone besides Buffy.

"East is more powerful then north," he continued completely ignoring the looks he was receiving.  "Common mistake.  Most people think north is stronger.  It isn't, but it is better for pure spells.  South is the best for dark spells.  Never sit west.  West is the weakest spot.  East is where the sunrises, the power begins.  West is where it sets."

Xander sat in the only available seat at the table, south, and said nothing more.

"How did he…" Willow started to say, staring at Xander as if he'd grown a second head.  Giles too looked stunned.

"Is he right?" Buffy asked.  She knew better then the rest that Xander had very lucid moments, but she'd never seen him act this way.  He seemed himself but didn't seem himself all at the same time.

Willow nodded yes to Buffy.

Xander had already buried his head back into his arms.

"That was…" Giles started, but didn't know where to go with it.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed.

"Has he…"

"No," she answered not needing the rest of the question, "he's never said anything like that before."

"Well then," he said standing, "I'll get the things."

Willow slid into his chair as he left.  He was back in no time.

"Okay then," Giles said opening a book.  "Buffy if you'll light these candles and place one in front of each of us.  Willow this incantation should do."

Willow looked over the spell as Buffy lit the candles.

"Well," Giles said after a moment, "we'll all just join hands…"

"What's this going to do exactly?" Buffy asked.

"First, we'll need to focus on Xander since it's his bonds we want to view.  Then, well, how to explain this…"  
  
"It'll get foggy," Willow cut in.  

Giles reluctantly agreed.  Buffy, still a bit skeptical took hold of Giles' and Xander's hands.  Xander sat up and looked at her when she did this.  He looked equal parts surprised and confused as he turned to each of them.  Ultimately he ended up looking back to Buffy for some kind of answer.

"We just need to check a few things out," she said to him and squeezed his hand once.

Xander nodded a bit then looked down at the table.

Willow, not thinking to warn him first, grabbed his right hand best as she could with the cast, causing him to jump.

"Sorry," she said quickly letting go.  "Can I?  It's important Xand."

Again he looked back to Buffy for reassurance.  She just nodded and again he seemed okay.

Willow took his hand again and couldn't help but think how cold it felt.

"Here we go," she said as she began.

****

It felt like falling.

Buffy felt like she was falling through darkness and fog.  Endlessly falling but she wasn't afraid.  She knew inside herself that she wouldn't be hurt.  There was no explaining that knowledge, but it did exist.

And then just as suddenly as she had fell, she had stopped.

It took her a minute for her to realize she wasn't alone.  Giles was to the left of her, Willow in front of her and Xander to her right.  All as they had been at the table.  Except not exactly.  Willow and Giles were facing her; Xander had his back to them all.

"Xander?" she started to say, but Giles held up his hand to her.  Silencing the words she hadn't quite formed.  Willow was the only one speaking.  She stood reciting the incantation over and over, but her eyes were elsewhere.  That's when Buffy noticed that whatever Xander was facing, Giles and Willow were looking at too.  And the expression on their faces was something like shock.

For a split second she hesitated but then curiosity won out.  She had to look.

As Buffy turned to face in the same direction as the others she was bathed in a brilliant white light.  Buffy tried to shield her eyes but it made no difference.  

Everything was lost in the light.

Then slowly, as her eyes adjusted, she made out three figures.  Three figures stood before Xander.  Loomed over him.  She couldn't make out their features only their outline.  Then there was movement.  The figure in the middle was reaching out, reaching out to touch Xander.

Buffy looked to Giles and then to Willow, neither of them seemed alarmed.  But she was.

Buffy started to go to him.  To do something.  Get between him and those things if she had too, but she found she couldn't move.  She had to do _something_.  Now.

So she screamed.

As she did it she felt herself being pulled upward.  Yanked back through the darkness and fog until she found herself back at the table.  Giles, Willow and Xander all looking at her with intent eyes.

"Buffy, what happened?" Willow asked worriedly.  

"Why weren't you doing anything?" she asked Willow and Giles.  
  


"What do you mean?" Giles asked.  Now he sounded worried too.

Buffy looked between the two.  Each confused.  Each worried.  Then she looked at Xander.  And she could tell that he knew what she was talking about.

"You saw them," he said to her as their eyes met.

"Saw who?" Giles asked.  Neither of them paid him any attention they just continued staring at each other.

"Wait a minute," Willow cut in, "you saw _them_?  _Them_, them?"

"Sort of," Buffy answered finally looking away from Xander.  "Mostly I saw light.  I yelled because they were reaching…."

Giles just nodded and Willow sat back and shut the book.

"What did you both see?" Buffy asked suddenly as she realized they must not have seen the same things she had.

Willow looked at Giles a moment, unsure.

"Well," Giles said, "not the Furies."

"Then what?"  
  


"Constance."

Buffy didn't now what to say.  Xander didn't seem at all surprised by the news, or if he was he didn't show it.

Giles and Willow exchanged looks again.

"There's more?" Buffy asked.

"Possibly," Giles answered, "but we really should talk about it later."

This seemed to pull Xander out of whatever stupor he'd been in.

"I already know," he said turning to Giles, "you can tell her."

"Tell me," Buffy implored, completely ignoring Xander's increasingly odd behavior.

"Xander," Giles said holding his eyes for a moment before turning to Buffy, "wasn't facing the rest of us.  Did you notice that we all appeared as we had around the table?"

Buffy nodded.

"He should have been facing us as he is now."

"I don't understand why that's so important."

"It doesn't necessarily mean anything," Willow put in.  She sounded more as if she wanted to believe then as if she actually did.

"It means I shouldn't be here now," Xander broke in.  "Buffy, it's what I've been trying to get across to you but you don't want to hear it."

"Because I don't believe it," she snapped back.

"I've told you again and again you're not doing anything but delaying the inevitable.  They know that, why don't you?"

She didn't know what to say.  Buffy knew he was right but she couldn't admit it.  She couldn't give up on him like he'd already given up on himself.

Xander could see she wasn't going to give an inch.  Frustrated, he got up to leave.  He stopped suddenly as he reached the hallway but did not turn back around. 

"The dead don't face the living."


	6. The Maniae

Fury by SLynn 

**Chapter 6:  The Maniae**

"I miss ice cream."

"Do you?" Buffy asked as she took another spoonful to her mouth.

"I remember the first time I had it.  Do you know that ice cream can be traced back to the Roman Empire?  It's that old.  But I never had any as a child."

"Really?"  
  


"No.  The first time I had it was the St. Louis world's fair.  It was heavenly."

"I'm surprised you know anything about heaven."  
  


Constance smiled at her.

"Why are you here?" Buffy asked as if she suddenly remembered her hatred for the woman in front of her.

"Why are any of us here?"  
  


Together they sat in brilliant sunshine at a street café.  Crowds of people buzzed about without making any real noise.  They seemed to be moving too fast.  They were almost a blur as they surrounded the two women.

"Well?"

"A chat."  
  


"We're friends now?" Buffy asked her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Something like that."

Buffy continued to stare at her.  The sun had set and it had grown dark in a matter of seconds.  The streets were now deserted but brilliantly lit by street signs and lamp lights.

"The Maniae are upon him," Constance finally said.  For the first time Buffy thought she saw something behind the woman's normally cold pale eyes.  Something familiar.

"Why are you telling me this?  What does that mean?"

"It means what it means.  And I'm telling you because I can."

Buffy's head felt funny.  Cloudy.  She'd felt this way before but she couldn't place when.

"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster." *****

Again Buffy looked at Constance not understanding.  But the feeling was becoming stronger inside of her.

"I was once like you," Constance continued sounding sad.

"We're nothing alike."

"You keep telling yourself that.  I'm sure that's what you said to Faith too."

"How…"  
  
"I have his memories.  Although I'm certain _his_ memories of her are a bit different from yours.  Would you like to compare them?"

This was the Constance she knew, at least more like the one she knew.  The lights had faded and the sun was rising.  People once again ran about them.  For a moment Buffy lost herself to her surroundings.

"What were we talking about?" she asked, confused again.

"The Maniae."

Buffy looked at Constance, really looked at her this time.  She seemed uncomfortable.

"Your not her."

No answer.

"Your not Constance.  Who…"

Buffy was about to ask who it was, but she had an idea already.

"I should get back."

"There's nothing to get back too."

****

Buffy awoke with a start.  She hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep on the couch.  She looked over and saw Willow at the table reading.  Giles was on the phone.  It took a moment to remember where Xander was.  Without further hesitation she got up and heading in that direction.  She could tell the others about the dream later but that last part was sticking with her.  Echoing inside her head.  

'There's nothing to get back too.'

That and Buffy had plenty of questions to ask.

Buffy slowly pushed the door open, just enough to make out Xander lying on the bed.  She was about to leave when he asked her to come in.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Don't be."

"I know you're all trying to help.  It's just that you're all wasting your time."

Buffy sat down beside him.  She didn't know what to say to that.

"How's your arms?" she asked instead.

"Fine.  Cast saved a lot of my right arm."

"Do you want to talk about it now?"

"No."

"Ever?"  
  


"Probably not."

Buffy nodded.

"Xander, can I ask you some things?"

"I can't say I'll answer."

"Fair enough.  How did you know about that spell?"  
  


Xander turned and faced her.

"I'm not sure," he said shaking his head, "I just knew.  I think it might be left over from Constance.  A lot of the stuff she forced into my head is still floating around up there.  I heard you guys talking about it and just had to add something."

Buffy nodded again.

"I made it worse didn't I?"

"What worse?" Buffy asked.

"For them.  They're afraid of me now."

"They're not afraid of you.  For you yes.  But not of you."

She could tell Xander didn't believe her.

"Come back with me," she started, "I need to talk to Giles and you should be a part of this."  
  
"I can't."

"Yes you can.  Xander you have to fight this.  I know it's not what you want to hear from me, but I'm not giving up.  And I won't let you."

"I wish you would," his voice was beginning to waiver, "It's hard Buffy.  It would be so easy to just give into this.  But I can't because you won't let go."

For a moment between the tone of his voice and the look on his face she considered it.  If she let go he could be at peace.  He wouldn't be tormented.  He wouldn't afraid.  He wouldn't be anything.

"I can't," she said, her own voice beginning to crack, "I'm sorry, I can't."

For a few minutes more neither spoke.  Finally Buffy had to ask.  She had to know.

"Was it you?"

Xander knew what she meant.  He knew because it had been him.  He had figured out how to use the link to communicate with her in dreams and had used it.  Xander had wanted her scared.  It wasn't something he was proud of but he felt he had to do it.  To at least try.  But he couldn't admit it to her so he said nothing.

She nodded, guessing mostly correctly about the situation as a whole.  She didn't fully understand his motives, but she felt the gist behind it.  Xander would from this point on be pushing her away at any cost.

Buffy knew that she'd just have to push back.

****

Giles got off the phone with Joyce, letting her know that Buffy and company were here and safe.  It had been getting late and he hadn't wanted her worrying.

"Where's Buffy gone?" he asked Willow as he stepped out of the kitchen.

Willow didn't look up, just pointed towards the hallway.

Giles nodded and sat down beside her and picked up a different book.

After some time Buffy joined them.  Alone.

"How is he?" Giles asked.

Buffy didn't answer.  At the moment she couldn't trust herself to talk.

Willow was now looking at her too.

"How's the research going?" Buffy asked, changing the topic.

"Fine," Giles answered still eyeing her warily.

"Buffy are you okay?" Willow asked not willing to let it go.

"Yeah," she answered carefully avoiding their eyes.

After a beat she brought up the dream.

"Constance said something about manicotti?  No, wait.  Mani…Mani…"

"The Maniae?" Willow asked.

"That's it.  What you said.  What's that mean?"  
  
"It's another name for the Furies.  They had many names.  The Furies.  The Erinyes.  The Praxidikae."

"What does it mean though?"

"The madness," Giles answered her, "The Maniae means the madness.  And she said it was upon him?"

Buffy nodded.

"Did it _seem_ like Constance?" Giles asked her cautiously.  He was still worried about Constance using the connection between Xander and Buffy.

Buffy felt the need to tread lightly here.  She didn't want them to think, as Xander obviously wanted her to, that Constance was exploiting the link.

"At times she seemed familiar enough, but no.  Definitely a dream version."

Giles wasn't all together convinced.

Buffy checked the time.  Nearly midnight.

"Willow, want me to walk you back to your place?  I could do a mini-patrol on the way."

"Sounds like a plan," she said gathering up her things.  She was anxious to get back and check on Tara.

"Be careful," Giles said more out of habit then anything else.  Sunnydale had been surprisingly void of unusual activity since Constance first arrived.

"I'll be back in a few hours," Buffy said answering his next question before he could ask it.

"I'll wait up then," Giles said as he walked the two to the door.

Startled was not the word for it.  As Giles turned round Xander was only about four feet from him.  He had nearly fallen out of his skin.

"Sorry," Xander said and looked down, "I was trying to catch Buffy before she left."

"It's alright. She'll be back soon."

"Okay," Xander said and started to leave.

"Wait Xander.  Can I ask you something?"  
  


Xander turned back round and nodded.

"How are you feeling now?  Better?"

"Better then before," he nodded but didn't look it.  He was rubbing his hands again.

"Did Buffy tell you about her dream?"  
  
"Yeah," Xander said quietly.  "A little bit.  Not much."

"Would you like something to drink?  Tea perhaps?"

"Okay," Xander said sitting at the table while Giles started getting things together.

"We haven't been treating you the way we should be," Giles said from the kitchen.

Xander said nothing so Giles just continued.

"We've been leaving you to much to yourself.  Buffy was right in trying to include you.  From now on I'll do the same."

"I wish you wouldn't."  
  


"Oh yes, I know that," Giles said, "we're making it easy for you to just slip away.  But not anymore.  You could help us.  You've shown me that tonight."  
  
"How?  I can't do anything."

"Yes you can because you know Constance," Giles said sitting down at the table with him, "She's given you her memories, that's how you knew about the spell."

Xander looked up at him but didn't confirm it.

"That's how you knew about the Maniae."

"How did you…"

"A guess," Giles said sitting back, "until now.  When did you learn to use the bond like that?"  
  


"I didn't even know about it until today.  I heard you talking this morning.  Before then it really was just an accident."

"You could have used it to call for help this afternoon."  
  


"I don't want to hurt Buffy.  I was afraid of what you'd said.  That I'd pull her over with me."

Giles nodded.

"So how?  How did you do it tonight?"

"I'm not sure how.  It's like the linking spell.  I just thought about it and knew what to do."

"Why Constance?"

"I thought if she had Constance in her dreams she might think that you were right.  That Constance could get to her through me.  But she didn't believe it.  I used as much of Constance as I could without actually calling her too.  I didn't want her really there."

"Do you think you could have actually contacted Constance?" Giles asked with some concern.

Xander nodded.

For a moment they sat in silence.

"Are you going to tell her?" Xander asked.

"No, not unless you do it again.  But you should consider telling her yourself."

Xander shrugged, uncertain of it.

"And I am serious.  No more hiding from us.  From this.  We really can't help you unless you want our help."

Giles got up to take the kettle from the stove.  When he returned he was somewhat surprised that Xander was still there.

"I'll try," Xander said softly, just above a whisper, looking at the table.

It was all Giles could ask for.

****

*** A/N:  **"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster."  Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

**A/N on Revision:  **Generally I don't do massive revisions like this.  I typically only edit grammar not content, but felt I had to this time.  Obviously I changed a lot of the dream sequence plus beefed up other parts to reflect the changes.  The more I thought on it the more I felt that Buffy, having a link to Xander, should be able to sense it was really him in the dream.  This is what's been holding up my progress.  Sorry about that.  


	7. The Potniae

Fury by SLynn 

**Chapter 7:  The Potniae**

It was a quarter past midnight and Willow was glad to be home.  

She loved her friends but the stress of just being around them was beginning to take its toll.  The whole situation was confusing and frustrating.  And now Tara.  She wasn't sure what Tara's reaction would be.  She couldn't blame her for being shocked and scared.  Willow knew that she wouldn't turn away from it all, from her and her friends, like Anya had done, but a part of her wouldn't blame her if she did.

Opening the door she was glad to see Tara awake obviously waiting up for her.

"Hey," she smiled as she came in the door.

"How are you feeling?" Willow asked sitting beside her.

"Better," Tara nodded, "Less freaked I guess."

"No one…"  
  
"I'm sorry…"

The both stopped and giggled realizing they were overlapping each other's words.

"Let me," Tara said, "I'm sorry about this afternoon.  I hope no one is too mad at me."  
  
"No one's mad at you sweetie," Willow cut in, "everyone totally understands."  
  


"Are you sure?  I won't do it again.  I was just so….   Is Xander alright?"

"He's…"  Willow wasn't sure how to address him just yet, "He's … different."

"Different good?" Tara asked hopefully.

Willow looked a bit dejected as she shook her head.

"We're going to find a way to help him," Tara said reassuringly taking Willow's hand with her own.  "I know we can."

"I'm not sure.  Tara, he was so strange tonight.  It wasn't the quiet strange we've gotten use too; this was a whole different level of strange.  He knew things he shouldn't have.  About magic.  And the spell."  
  


"So you did do the linking spell?"

Again Willow nodded looking more dejected then before.

"What is it?" Tara asked now seriously concerned.

"He's still connected to Constance.  The link isn't as strong as it was before.  Giles and I saw her, but she was semi-transparent."

"So that's good.  Right?"  
  
"Yeah that's not bad.  But Buffy…" Willow sighed and began again, "Giles and I got a chance to talk about it afterwards without Buffy and Xander.  We could both see the link between the two of them.  It's there and it's as stronger then Giles thought it would be."  
  
Tara nodded solemnly.

"It gets better," Willow said with sarcasm, "Xander wasn't facing us during the spell."

Tara let out a small gasp.

"And the Furies were there.  Giles and I couldn't see them, but Xander and Buffy could.  We think that's why the bond to Constance is fading."

"So if we do find a way to lift the curse, will that bring her back?"  
  


Willow took it into consideration.  Giles and her had both thought that Constance's faded presence was a good thing, however it could be attributed to two things.  One, the bond actually was fading because of the separate dimensions or two the Furies were interfering with it.

  
"The bond with Constance might grow stronger again if we break the curse," she finally admitted.

"But if we don't…"  
  
"Xander will definitely not make it through this."

"So," Tara said hesitantly after a few minutes, "are we going to try it?  What we talked about last night."

"I don't see what choice we have left."

****

Buffy felt a bit guilty about only peaking in on Xander, but she hadn't wanted to wake him.  Even worse, she'd decided while she'd been out that she'd probably should go home for the rest of the night.

Good or bad Giles had agreed with her decision.

Giles had been waiting up for her, as he said he would, and they briefly went over the night's activities.  Slaying had gone well.  Only two vamps and one demon.  It wasn't a lot but it was much more activity then she'd seen in some time.

Giles had said nothing more about Xander's behavior and Buffy was reluctant to bring it up herself.  She was actually relived to not have to talk or think about it for a while.

They'd said their goodbyes and she'd left Giles' apartment just after 2am.  The streets were quiet and it gave her some time to reflect.  Not that she wanted to reflect, she wanted to forget.

Xander seemed lost to her.  She knew that he desperately wanted her to let go.  Part of her felt that it might even be the kindest thing to do.  She was the only thing holding him here.  The reality of the situation was that Xander was losing it, losing it in a big way.  Every hour it seemed he got worse.  If she just let go he might be better off.

Buffy silently admonished herself for the thought but again it crept back into her head.  Was she already doing it?  Sneaking out in the night.  Going when she'd promised to stay.

Buffy stopped in her tracks and turned back towards Giles'.

A few feet away she stopped again.

She was being silly.  One night away wouldn't make a difference.

'He'll be fine,' she thought as she once more headed back towards her home.

A few feet further and she'd changed her mind.

She'd thought the same thing last night.  Had the same debate inside her head.  Where had that left them?  How much worse was he now?

Buffy let out a grunt in frustration not sure what to do.  It all seemed to hinge on this decision.  She knew if she kept going towards her own house she was ultimately deciding to let Xander win.  Let him give in to whatever powers the Furies held and lose himself completely.  If she headed back to Giles' she knew she'd end up fighting Xander until the end.  She'd be refusing to let him go and probably making the inevitable that much harder on the both of them.

Buffy stood under the street lamp at a loss.  She had choices to make and pay for but couldn't quite get herself to do it.

Inside her she knew there was only one thing she could do really.  It would be hard.  Hard on her and him.  On everyone, but she had to do it.  She'd couldn't not do it.

With renewed energy she made her decision and headed on her way.

****

Tara and Willow had everything prepared.  They'd ran across the means a few nights back and had struggled with the idea since then.  It would be dangerous for certain.  No one had done it before.  At least, no one had ever recorded doing it before.

That there was even a way to contact the Furies had been surprising.  Neither had thought they'd really go though with it.  Until now.

They'd agreed that Willow would go alone.  Tara would support her with the summoning, but would not truly be a part of it.  Willow was stronger they both knew that.  She'd have to face them by herself.  She wasn't sure what she'd say or do once there, but she felt compelled to do it anyway.

It was just after one o'clock and Willow was ready.

The required items were surprisingly easy to obtain.  No special amulets, no magic chalice.  Willow knew that the key to actually summoning the Furies would have to do more with will power then words.  She'd have to call them with every part of herself, every morsel of her being.

She sat in the center of their living room.  The candles were lit.  The charms were drawn.  Over and over she recited the incantation.  Again and again.

Every muscle in Willow's body was tense.  Every part of her was focused on the words she repeated.

Tara sat nervously outside of the perimeter watching.  Twenty minutes had passed and still nothing.  Willow's brow was lined in sweat, still uttering words in Greek.  Her voice was nearly pleading.

Another fifteen minutes passed much the same, when Tara began to feel the air changing.  It was a subtle shift, but the room began to feel noticeably cooler.  And an odor, a familiar odor faint on the air began to dance around her.

  
Tara inhaled deeply and was struck by it.  She recognized the smell.  It was hard to forget.  It was the odor from Giles' apartment earlier today, the very fragrance she'd smelt before finding Xander missing.

Willow seemed unaware of the change.  Was in fact, unaware of anything now except the words she spoke.  She was one with them.  

It felt as if those words were all there ever was or would be of Willow Rosenberg at that moment.

Tara was becoming increasingly alarmed.  The smell.  That smell.  Something bad was happening.  It had to be.  It was death here before them.  Tara debated within herself on whether or not she should stop Willow from going further.

She never got the chance.

The room had gone silent.  Tara looked to Willow and saw her staring straight ahead, unblinking, eyes black as coal.  Her lips no longer repeated the incantation.  They no longer needed too.  Tara knew that Willow's body might still be here with her, but the rest of her had gone on to meet the Furies.

****

Instinctively Willow knew she'd succeeded, at least in part.

Alone she sat on a cold floor.  She was surrounded by what she could only describe as emptiness.  The description seemed wrong, but it was the best she could make.  It wasn't so much emptiness as it was lack of substance.

Willow didn't know what would happen next but decided to let her instincts drive her.  And they were telling her to wait.

So she continued to wait and wait.  Sitting stone still for no telling how long.  Still concentrating within herself on her goal.  Still repeating within her head the incantation.

 After an untold time she felt their presence gathering around her.  The three Furies were now with her.  They surrounded her just beyond sight.  One sister each to the left and right, and the third directly in front of her.

Willow continued to sit.  She felt that she must let them make the first contact.  Invite her in so to speak.

They drew closer.

Now, ever so slightly, Willow made out what sounded like air passing slowly from a tire.  Leaking.

She knew what the sound was.

Hissing.

The Furies were often described as beautiful and terrifying to look at.  Winged sisters with wild snake filled hair.  They had been born of anger and blood.

As Willow slowly made out the figure before her she found that nothing could have prepared her for this.  No book, no description could compete with the physical sight of them.  Only determination kept her from running.  A determination to see this through at all costs.

Before her was a woman tall and god like.  Her hair billowed and moved on its own accord, alive with vipers whose eyes could be seen glinting in the dark.  They peaked out at her and hissed from behind locks of thick black hair.  Her skin was gray and pale, a deathly shade that was oddly translucent.  Brass tipped wings tucked behind her back, barely visible but occasionally catching hold of some unseen light and reflecting it.  Her robe, once white, now stained and splattered with blood; blood still evident on her hands.  

She stood before Willow, silently demanding her full attention and respect.

She had it.

"We are the Erinyes.  The Potniae.  The Praxidikae."

Willow was now truly scared.  Only the one before her had spoken, had actually moved her lips, but it had come out in three distinct tones.  A full range, almost harmonic.  It was as if all three were speaking to her at once, each voice menacing and piercing.

  
"We know why you have come.  The Fates have foreseen it."

Willow started to say something then held her tongue.

"There is nothing for you to do.  Return to your world.  Return to your life.  You were foolish to try.  End your journey here."

"Wait," Willow said as they began to recede backwards.  She had been to caught up in the sight of them, so startled, that she had almost forgotten why she'd come in the first place.

"Foolish girl.  Heed our words.  There is nothing for you to do.  Return to your world.  Return to your life."

"He's done nothing wrong," Willow cried out in frustration, "you're punishing him for no reason."

Unsure if she had been spun around or if it was they, Willow now found herself facing a different sister.  She looked nearly identical to the first, except her robes were not bloodied and her eyes, if possible, were harder and colder.

"She is set in her mind," the Furie before her said, not really to Willow but more to her sisters.  And this time her voice came out as one tone, the deepest of the three.

Again the room spun, and the third now stood before her.  They seemed to be examining her.  Looking her over and over, as if they could sense deceit.

"She is strong.  She is…" the words seemed to die on her lips.  Once again the voice was a single octave, this time the highest.  "She is cunning."

Willow once more felt the room spin and before her was the first Furie.

"I am Alecto," she said in her even middle range voice, "My sisters Megaera and Tisiphone have decided to do something we have not before."

Willow allowed herself for a split second to hope again.

Alecto seemed to sense it.  She sensed her hope and had fed off of it.

"We will hear your story."

****

**A/N:  The Potniae is one of the names used to describe the Furies in Greek and Roman mythology.  It means "the Awful Ones". **

**The Praxidikae, I think I've put in before, means "The Vengeful Ones".**

**As with most Roman/Greek mythology, they are virtually the same.  The Furies and The Erinyes are their names respectively for each culture.  **


	8. The Eumeides

Fury by SLynn 

We claim to be just and upright. No wrath from us will come stealthily to the one who holds out clean hands, and he will go through life unharmed; but whoever sins and hides his blood-stained hands, as avengers of bloodshed we appear against him to the end, presenting ourselves as upright witnesses for the dead.

**Aeschylus, (310), The Erinyes**

**Chapter 8:  The Eumeides**

Willow had laid it all out.

At first she hadn't known where to begin, even how to address the women before her.  Letting intuition guide her she related the tale.  She told them of Constance's arrival, her game, her demise and return, and mostly of her deceit.  All of it was before them now and Willow could only guess at what they would do.

Through out it all they had remained motionless, but their eyes had shown their interest.  Even the snakes that weaved in and out within their hair seemed to stop and listen.  To stare at her.

For eons it seemed they stared showing no signs of speaking.  They had asked no questions and now only seemed to contemplate.  The longer it took the worse Willow began to feel about the whole situation.  She tried hard to fend off her feelings of uncertainty but they continuously crept in.

"We have decided," the multi-toned voice boomed, emitting from Alecto's mouth and startling Willow out of her thoughts.

Willow held her breath waiting for 'them' to continue.

"We will lift the curse."

Her relieve was stupendous.  Willow let out a huge sigh and beamed at the woman before her.  

"Thank you so…"  
  
"Silence!"

Willow stopped immediately.  She'd forgotten where she was and who she was dealing with in her excitement.

"Before we do this you must be certain.  You must be certain it is what you really want."

She was shocked they were even bothering to ask.  Of course it was what she wanted, why else would she be here.  Why else would she have gone through this?

"No one can see all ends," Alecto said in her voice alone as if Willow's thought had been spoken aloud.  "You believe now that what you are doing is right, but if you could see…"

"Sister!" Megaera snapped, "Hold your tongue."

"You can not interfere," Tisiphone added almost as if she didn't care either way.

After a brief pause, the three again spoke as one.

"Are you certain then?"

"Yes," Willow said without regard to the ominous warning Alecto had tried giving her.

"Then let what was once done be undone."

****

Xander woke with a start.  His heart was racing and he couldn't remember where he was or what he'd been dreaming.  Maybe he hadn't been dreaming at all.  All he knew was that something was wrong.  He felt different.

"What is it?"

Xander was surprised to see her but not really.

Buffy sat up beside him and gently touched his arm.

"Was it a nightmare?  Are you okay?"

He hadn't known how long she'd been beside him.  Checking the clock he saw it was just past 3am.  She had crept in not to long ago and had decided not to wake him.

"Xander?" Buffy asked, her voice growing worried.

"I'm…I'm…"

He didn't know.  Something was definitely wrong and he couldn't place what.

"Do you want me to get Giles?" she asked flipping on the light.

Xander shook his head.  Not Giles.  It wasn't Giles.

"Willow," he mumbled.  It set alarms off in his head.

"What about her?  Do you want to call her?"  
  
Like a wave it washed over him.  Jumping up out of the bed he raced towards the door.  Buffy was almost too startled to follow him.  He'd moved so quickly.  Gone so quickly, all the while saying "No!" over and over.

She followed him out the door, down the hall and up the stairs to Giles' room.  Without knocking he threw the door open and started shouting at Giles' to wake up.  It nearly gave the man a heart attack.

"Xander what is it?" Giles shouted back at him.  It was the only way he could be heard.

"Willow!" he yelled.

"What about Willow?  Xander, is she hurt?" Buffy asked trying to calm him.

"No," he said again, but his voice wasn't as loud or urgent as it had been before.

"What then?  What is it?" she asked, forcibly sitting him at the edge of the bed.

"She's done it.  She lifted the curse."  
  
"What?" Giles asked clearly surprised.  He had already gotten his robe and glasses on.

"She…she…" 

Xander stopped, took a deep breath and tried to continue.

"She lifted it.  I don't know how…"

"That's… that's amazing," Buffy cut in too excited to notice Xander's frustrated look.

"How could she have done it," Giles said, his voice a mixture of awe and joy, "incredible."  

"No!" Xander said standing and forcing the two to step back, "She shouldn't have done it.  Don't you… can't…"

He couldn't form the words.  He couldn't get it out fast enough.  Xander's mind was racing.  There wasn't time for this.  They had to act now.

"Constance," he finally spit out, "she'll come back now.  Right now.  She's been waiting.  This is what…"

He could feel it even now.  That's what had awoken him.  Her presence.  Back in his head and as strong as ever.  Maybe stronger.  The fog had lifted and he could feel her now.

Giles and Buffy were at a loss.  They stood still watching the turmoil behind his eyes.

"Are you certain?" Giles asked slowly.

Xander didn't trust himself to answer and just threw a look that undeniably spoke his opinion.

"Of course," Giles nodded, "We could… no… wait…"

Xander and Buffy watched as Giles mentally debated himself over their course of action.

"I'm not sure what we can do," he admitted.

****

The next several minutes were lost in confusion.  Giles had hustled them downstairs to get Willow on the phone.  Once they did the confusion was that much greater.  

Willow had been too excited to listen at first, had in fact been on the brink of calling them to confirm it had all been true.  After several minutes of back and forth between the two, it was decided that despite the late hour Tara and Willow should join them.

During this exchange Buffy had watched intently while Xander had slipped off to the window. 

Constance had waited for this.  Wanted this.  Somehow she had known this would happen.

"Xander?" Buffy asked softly from behind, "You alright?"

Xander didn't face her.  He didn't answer her.  He just kept looking out into the darkness.

"We'll figure it out.  Giles and Willow will find some spell or charm to block her.  This time we know she's coming.  It'll be different."

"It'll be different," he repeated slowly.

Buffy took it as an encouraging sign from him and nodded in agreement.

"It will," she said again.

"You're right," he said turning to face her, "because she's already here."

****

At six minutes to four a.m. the streets were deserted.

Occasionally a stray cat roamed the alleys behind the shops that lined the streets of Sunnydale, but as if instinct had driven them away, tonight not a single one was to be found.

Despite it's odd crimes and gang related violence Sunnydale had done well for itself.  There were café and theaters, a mall and a couple of movie theaters.  There was even an art gallery.  And of course what Californian town would be complete without a local occult shop.

The Magic Box had been a fixture in the town for several years and had gone through several owners.  The neighboring shops were pleased with the latest owner, a seemingly mild mannered Englishman who didn't seem to attract the same 'element' the previous owners had drawn.

Business was good for everyone.

That is, business was good.

At five minutes to four a.m. the streets resounded with a sound like thunder.

The Magic Box and everything within a five hundred foot radius was completely destroyed.

The police would later claim that a gas line had erupted causing the catastrophe, but those in Sunnydale who tended notice the 'strange' occurrences never believed it.

Nothing was burned.  Nothing was blackened.  There was no crater.  It didn't look natural and it didn't look man-made.  It was just empty.

For five hundred feet in all directions, a perfect circle, there was nothing but dirt.

And at the center, where the Magic Box use to be, was another perfect circle, this one a foot in radius.

Inside the circle was a strange writing no one knew had seen before or sense.

That and a woman.

****

**A/N:**  Sorry.  Sorry.  Sorry.  This chapter is shorter then I usually write and it also took **forever** to do.  I can only blame two weddings, a homecoming, a holiday and three sicknesses.  That and writers block.  Likely, I'll revise this chapter.  I really just wanted to get something written and out again to keep me motivated.

Also, The Eumeides means the Kindly Ones and was also what the Furies were occasionally referred to as.


	9. Begin Again

**Fury by SLynn**

It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. 

**Sally Kempton**

**Notes:  **I could write a book full of excuses on why this hasn't been completed yet.  We'll attribute it to massive writers block and a hectic life.  Okay, really I have no excuses.  Forgive me?

**Chapter 9:**  **Begin Again**

Buffy looked intently at Xander not sure of his meaning.  'She's already here,' echoed in her head.  Without realizing it she took a few steps back.  That was enough to bring him back to himself.

"No Buffy, I don't mean…"

She continued to stare, to search his face for a change.  She looked into his eyes and saw none.  He was himself, so what did he mean?

There was no time to find out.

The front door, which Giles had been very near to while still on the phone with Willow, had been literally thrown open.  Exploded was a more correct description.  Giles, more startled then hurt.  Before he could react, before any of them could react, Giles found himself lifted and pushed to the wall by some force.  Buffy and Xander faced similar situations.

For a moment there was silence and then she walked in.  Constance had returned.

  
She stood unmoving in the doorway.  Her skin was gray and slack.  Her eyes still pale blue seemed sharper, colder.  Her long dark hair was now stringy; clumps were missing exposing her scalp and in sections her skull.  Her fingernails were long and jagged, as if she'd clawed her way out of the grave.  Even her clothes were tattered and stained.  Constance had indeed returned from the dead.

They all looked at her with in evident shock.

"What's wrong?" she asked ever smiling, this time with broken and yellow teeth, "Don't you recognize me?"

No one said anything.  

Giles was aghast.  Nearest to Constance he saw her closest and had received the full effect of her new look.  

Buffy was shocked but mostly angry.  The only feelings she could manage were all hate and rage.

Xander was surprisingly composed.  He'd known what to expect, he'd seen and felt it now for some time.  But still he was afraid, he would lose that fear.

"Sorry I missed the witches.  I was hoping to find you all together.  It would be easier on me, but maybe this is better."

"Wh…"

Giles had begun to speak, to perhaps ask 'what' or 'why' but never got it out.  His voice was lost in a gasp.  Constance had not moved an inch towards him, hadn't even looked his way.  In fact, since entering she hadn't once taken her eyes off of Xander.

"Let's hold all questions till the end, okay?  Good."

She continued advancing into the room, observing slow and methodical.  Xander knew she was coming to him.  It was unavoidable.

"I knew I had to act quick.  I've waited and waited.  So long for this."

She was in front of him; her face was inches from his.  He suddenly found his composure slipping and Xander could no longer look at her.  She smelt like death.

"Do you know where they sent me?  What it's like there?"

Her voice was rising and with it her temper.  Xander had no voice to answer her and knew that she didn't require one.

Slowly she put her hand to his chin and pulled his face down, forcing him to look her in the eyes.  She held his gaze for a moment, needing to see that he was indeed still very much afraid.

"But," she said releasing him and stepping back, "we'll have lots of time to go over that."

Constance moved to the center of the room, her attitude dramatically and suddenly different.

"Well, are you ready?" she said brightly clapping her hands together and for the first time taking notice of Buffy and Giles as well.

"Oh," she started, looking down at her hands, "no wonder you didn't recognize me.  This we can fix."

They all watched as Constance began to 'heal' herself.  Her skin began to regain color.  Scars and cuts mended.  Hair regenerated.  Everything about her returned to as it was in a matter of moments.

"I've learned a few new tricks since the last time we met," a comment clearly aimed at Giles.

"So," she said with sitting down in the nearest chair, her face aglow with her signature smile, "what kind of game should we play now?"

****

The last thing Willow heard on the line was a small explosion.  She thought there had been yelling, maybe even screaming but she couldn't be certain.  It had been hard to follow Giles before, he had been agitated.  Now, the line was dead and Willow felt the same.  

 "What's wrong?" Tara asked for the second time growing impatient.

"I'm not sure.  Giles was…"  Willow trailed off as if suddenly her mistake became clear.

She had a guess.  It was only that, but still.  All she knew beyond a doubt was that her friends were in trouble.

"Sweetie?" Tara asked.

"I think I've really messed up."

Tara stood shocked.  Willow was definitely not herself, and worse she couldn't get out of her why.

"We need to get to Giles', but we have to be careful," she finally said standing and beginning to look around the room as if the answer would be before her.

"What's happened?" Tara asked with more force then she'd ever managed, "What did he say?  Willow, what's going on?"

Willow stopped cold.  Determined now.  Resolved now to face it.

"Constance."

****

The room now felt small.  It was the largest in Giles' apartment, but now it felt cramped with the four of them.  Constance had seemingly drifted off, as if in a trance after having spoken last.  She looked at the floor and hadn't moved.

It was odd and unnerving, but it had given Giles and Buffy a chance to notice that they weren't completely bound.  Whatever it was that held them to the wall did not prevent them from making small movements.

As suddenly as she had stopped talking, Constance began again.

"I don't know why I even bother asking," she said standing and continuing as if she had never stopped, "it's not like I'm giving you a choice here."

"Xander and I are leaving now," she continued as she walked towards him.  He suddenly felt that whatever had held him in place was no longer there and he staggered a bit against the change.  

"Neither of you are going to do a thing," she said turning her back to Xander and mainly addressing Giles, "and I mean that.  Not a solitaire thing.  Not leave this apartment, not even order a pizza until…"

With her back turned Xander had not been idle.  She'd trusted too much in his fear 'of her' to count out his fear of 'returning to her'.  In three quick steps Xander had picked up nearest lamp with his good arm and swung it at the back of Constance's head.  But if she had discounted his fear, he had discounted her awareness.

Constance stopped mid-sentence and wheeled on Xander.  She grabbed his arm before he could bring it down on her and shook her head with a smile.

"I didn't want to do this in front of everyone," she purred, "but you really didn't leave me any other choice."

Constance's free hand filled with light, bright and intense.  The lights in the room began to buzz and flicker.  In one quick motion she brought the hand to his chest and the force sent him back to the wall with a scream.  Buffy felt tears come to her eyes and tried to turn away.  The impact had been so strong Xander was now on the floor and the window that separated them had cracked.

"I thought I'd taught you better then that," Constance laughed as she now stood over him.  Grapping him by the shirt she pulled him to his feet, "are we going to have to start over?"

"Go back to hell."

Constance looked at him with a fire slowly building behind her eyes.  She seemed to be searching his thoughts.  Reading his emotions.

"You don't want to come with me?  I'm hurt." She said with false concern, "I guess, if I had too, I could just take some one else with me.  Would that be better?"

She saw what she wanted from him, all that concern and care behind his eyes that read her intentions.

"No," he said quickly, "I'll go."

Buffy tried to speak but found she couldn't.  Giles was in the same situation.

"Are you sure?" Constance asked slowly, looking significantly towards Buffy.  "Because if you can't play along…"

"I'll go and…" his voice trailed off, knowing what she wanted to hear but not certain he could say it.

"And?" she smiled.

"…I'll do what you want," he finished.

  
****

**A/N:**  Shorter chapter then usual.  I really wanted to just get something down to get me writing more.  Let me know what you think. 


	10. Confuto

**Fury by SLynn**

**Notes:  **Thank you again and again for not hating me forever in my delayed postings.  I'm trying hard to stumble on here.

**Chapter 10:**  **Confuto**

Chaos.  It was absolute chaos.  

Willow and Tara had arrived as soon as they could but it was too late.  From the outside they knew it couldn't be good, the door to Giles' apartment was completely gone, but they'd held out hope.  Maybe they'd been mistaken.  Maybe it would be different.  And it was different, yet the same.

By the time they'd arrived Constance was gone.  And so was Xander.

Willow and Tara had found Buffy and Giles unconscious.  Worse still, when they both did finally come too, there was just no understanding them.  Literally.

When Giles and Buffy woke up it was like they were speaking Greek.  Well sometimes Greek, sometimes Latin.  Sometimes it even sounded a bit Russian.  Regardless, whatever they said came out odd and garbled.  And despite the fact they had both obviously been cursed with the same spell, they couldn't even understand each other.

It took a good ten minutes just to calm them down.  They were both trying so hard to let the other two know what happened and were clearly frustrated at the turn of things.

Eventually Giles tried writing and in many ways that was worse.  He sat with pen in hand for a few minutes and then just shook his head.  Whatever Constance had done had been strong.

The only way to communicate was through head nods, which was painstaking and slow.

Willow would ask a question and Buffy and Giles would either nod or do nothing.  The spell went so far as to limit there motions and usually the nods they did manage were more like head rolls.

After fifteen more minutes and only really learning that Constance had come back and had taken Xander with her, both things they knew, Willow and Tara were at a stand still.

"What did she do to them?" Tara asked in disbelief.  She'd never seen anything so strange.

Willow thought she had an idea, but wasn't sure.  Giles undoubtedly knew where the answer to their cure would lie but could not tell them.

Giles continued pacing the room.  Since being revived he'd tried again and again to let Willow know how to counter the spell.  It had been an easy one, easy and complex all at once.  Much like the results.  She'd taken away their ability to communicate.  He knew the spell, had used it before, and the typical duration was about three hours.  But they didn't have three hours and they certainly couldn't go after Constance like this.

Of course, there were ways of getting past the spell.  Tricking it for lack of better words.  It worked solely on one's power to communicate.  Stronger versions also took away your power to understand and be understood.  This one wasn't as strong.  It was clouding his thinking, a bit, but not heavily.  That was good news.  Constance had shown such a show of strength on arriving. The she leaves with **_this_** as a parting blow.  That was something in itself.  He'd expected to find himself disemboweled.  Or worse.

The key to getting past the magical elements of the spell was to not think about it.  The more you focused on the fact that you can't communicate the worse it becomes.  You won't be able to speak or write, as he'd tried when he was panicked, but there are other ways.

Giles cleared his mind.  Concentrated on the task and did what was necessary.  He saw the only thing he could use to relate the problem to her.  It wasn't much, but it should at least point Willow in the right direction.

Willow, of course, was some what surprised when without warning Giles placed a book in front of her.

She looked at the book and then looked up at Giles in disbelief.

"'The Loss of Virtue:  The Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America'.  Giles, do you really read this stuff?"

Giles turned away in frustration.

"I think he's trying to tell you something," Tara said.

"**_Moral_** confusion?  You think I have **_moral_** confusion?" Willow gasped.

Giles stared at her in disbelief.  He was beginning to think the room was spelled to cause everyone problems.

"Oh, Oh!" Willow finally realized what he meant, "Confusion.  She did a confusion spell.  That's easy enough.  **_Confuto_**."

One word and they were themselves again.

"We've got to go," Buffy said quickly heading for the door, "There is no telling how far she's gotten and we've wasted a lot of time."

"Buffy," Giles said, "we can't just do that.  We can't just go running after her."  
  


"Why not?"

"For one thing, we don't know where she is."

Willow and Tara watched the exchange passively.

"But we know who's with her.  We can't just let her do…"

"We don't know what she's going to do Buffy," Giles said with real emotion, "She's less then predictable, that's for certain.  And Xander let with her willingly."

"He what?" Willow interrupted.

"It's not like it sounds," Buffy said in a tone that clearly indicated she didn't want to explain.

"So what do we do?" Tara asked since no one else seemed willing too.

And that was the real problem.  No one knew.

****

Upon waking Xander felt as if some deadly fever had finally broken.  He felt rested.  Completely and wholly himself.  But those feelings only affected his body.  His state of mind was something else.

He didn't know where he was and he didn't know how long he'd been there.

Last he recalled he was leaving with Constance.  Telling Constance he'd go with her, but where was she now?

The room, he could only assume it was a room, was dark.  It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust, but even then it was still hard to a make anything out.  Best he could tell the room was no bigger then ten feet squared, he sat on the only piece of furniture afforded it, a cot, and the door was just opposite of him.

Xander stood on surprisingly wobbly legs.  He'd almost lost his balance completely.  It only went to confirm his suspicion that he had indeed been out for some time.  Bending forward, hands to knees, he fought the brief wave of vertigo that passed over him.  In doing so he made another discover, his arm was now minus its cast.

Standing upright again he began to walk the floor.  Doing small circles around the edge, carefully avoiding the cot, he tried to think things through.

'Where was he?'

'Was this what Constance intended?  Was she just going to lock him up and leave him?'

Suddenly a terrible thought came to him.  It stopped him cold and his eyes flew to the door.

'What if she was playing her games again?'

As expected and right on queue, the door opened.

"I knew you'd be up.  Waiting.  Wanting answers."

Constance slid into the room and Xander backed up until he found himself backed up into the cot.

"Go ahead, have a seat," she said to him, and he found that he had obeyed her without really wanting too, "Good.  Comfortable?"

She didn't really want an answer.

"I was very upset with you," she began as she walked the room, commanding his full attention, "Very upset.  Angry Xander, and I don't like to get angry.  Oh the things I had planned.  Such things.  You couldn't imagine them.  It was going to make your last visit with me look like a day at Disneyland."

She paused, as she was apt to do, letting her words sink in.

"But, when it comes down to it, you and your friends actually did me a favor.  It turns out that sometimes you need a nice trip to hell to make you grow as a person.  And I've grown.  I've learned things Xander…"

She smiled at him and icy ran through his veins.

"I've learned so many things.  Not just about powers and magic, about myself."

She stopped and let it all sink in.

"And then you and your friends did me another favor.  You lifted the Furies curse.  Gave me a free pass home.  I was strong enough to come back before then, but the curse was such fun.  I didn't want to ruin it."  
  


"You're lying," Xander said looking back at her.

"Such a tone," she laughed, "What makes you say these things to me?  I don't lie Xander.  Not to you.  It's true, the curse was nothing.  I could have lifted it myself and come back in a second.  Whenever I wanted too."

Xander just continued to stare back at her.

"It's true," she snapped suddenly losing her temper, but regaining it just as quickly, "Of course it's true."

Then she stopped cold.  Just stopped and stared.  Not really at Xander, but in much the same way as she'd done at Giles' apartment.  She just stopped talking and her face went blank.  

"Accusing me of lying.  And after all I've done for you," she continued as if she'd never stopped, "and all I'm going to do."

Xander tried hard not to show his surprise at what had just occurred but Constance took no notice.

"You see, I've wasted too much time on silly games.  I guess once you've lived as long as I have, you grow bored.  You have to entertain yourself any way you can.  You'll see what I mean in another hundred years, you'll feel it too.  No, sending me away was the best thing that could have happened.  It gave me a vision.  A goal.  I have aspirations again Xander, something I haven't had in a very long time."

Xander began to feel uneasy about the tone of her voice, the near ecstatic nature it began to take.  That and her inclusion of him in this.

"Now, don't think this doesn't mean you and your friends are going to get off easy for what you've done.  No.  You will be punished.  And they, well they'll get what they deserve."

"Please don't…"

Constance put her fingers to his mouth and stopped him from saying any more.  He shuddered at her touch, but she just smiled as if she hadn't noticed.

"I'm not going to **_hurt_** them.  No, I've thought of something much better."

She took a few steps back from him.  She wanted to really see his reaction.

"You see, I was going to come back, kill you all horribly one at a time.  At times I was going to start with you; at other times you were going to be the last.  I'll admit, every so often I just planned on destroying the whole damn town.  But it was just too petty.  Cheap.  I'm better then that.  So I thought it over, and I figured out the perfect revenge."

Xander didn't like where this was heading.

"You see, if I kill you they'd be upset.  They'd mourn.  Grieve.  But they'd get over it.  Eventually, they'd get over it.  If I kill one of them, same thing.  Sad but true.  And if I kill you all, where does it leave me?  Without vision.  Without a goal."

No, this wasn't good.  Constance, having never scored high on the sanity meter was now completely off the charts.  She'd changed alright.  She was twice as scary and four times as crazy then before.

"And my great vision," she said coming closer with each word until she was finally face to face with him, "my great aspiration is now to make you just like me."

****  
**A/N:**  Confuto is Latin for: to check, repress, stop, halt, turn back/ silence.

The Loss of Virtue:  The Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America is an actual book.  I've never read it.  I'm not endorsing it.  I searched it out on Amazon and thought it would be funny.  For me it's just a plot point.  I'll probably get sued for this.

And my reference to Disneyland is an endorsement, not that they'd pay me, but I love the place.


	11. The Dreamers

Fury by SLynn  
  
Author's Notes: I am so sorry this story is taking so long to write. It's not just life getting in the way here, but the story itself. Most times when I write I don't know where I'm heading and it's kind of fun to find out. This one has stalled for awhile, but I'm fairly confident it's now back in swing. Please read and review. Forgive me my spelling and grammar errors MS Word only does so much.  
  
All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams. Elias Canetti  
  
Chapter 11: The Dreamers  
  
Xander wandered aimlessly around his cell. It had been three weeks. Well, he couldn't b be entirely certain but it had been three weeks since he had began to count the days. There was no telling really how long he'd been here. He wasn't even sure he was really counting 'days'. He had no clock, no light and little food or water. There was nothing he knew for certain except that he was growing thin and maybe insane.  
  
He hadn't seen Constance since she'd told him what she wanted to do.  
  
Once a day, if it really is just once, someone came to walk him down the hall to use the bathroom. From this he gathered the only information he could about where he was. The bathroom was three doors away from his cell. He was usually given about five minutes, sometimes longer.  
  
From the bathroom things were less muffled. Xander could hear noises he couldn't from his cell. He'd guessed before that his cell might be soundproof, but the bathroom wasn't. From the bathroom he sometimes heard noise, like fog horns. He must be closer to the water, much closer. But that was all he could figure.  
  
The person, sometimes a man but usually a woman, would never speak to him. Xander was beginning to think they couldn't or weren't allowed too. They all appeared to have a dazed look about them. Like they were sleeping with their eyes open. And he never saw the same person twice. Never. Twenty- one trips to the bathroom and he had never seen the same person twice.  
  
Once back in his cell Xander would always find fresh linen and a tray of food and water. It was then he would mark another day off his calendar. Calendar was a bit of a stretch; all he had actually done was scratch 21 marks onto his cot. Still that small act made him feel like he still had some control over his life.  
  
Not that this was actually living. You couldn't call it that. It was just existing. Xander hadn't felt alive in a very long time. Since before Constance, a time that seemed like years before when it was really only months.  
  
After the furies curse had been lifted by Willow he'd felt it again. What it was to live. But that moment had been fleeting. Now it seemed almost impossible to remember.  
  
Xander sat on the floor for no other reason then it was something different then the cot. If he sat on the cot he might fall asleep again.  
  
And sleep was bad. Very bad. When Xander slept he dreamed. Horrible, horrible dreams. Worse then anything he'd ever experienced before mainly because they seemed so real.  
  
He knew, absolutely knew, Constance was somehow behind them. But knowing that didn't make it easier.  
  
The dreams were so vivid, so alive. He woke from them cold and sweaty and constantly trying to reassure himself that they weren't real.  
  
And he knew that too. But knowing that didn't make it easier either.  
  
They weren't real, the dreams weren't real.  
  
At least not yet.  
  
****  
  
She was doing it again.  
  
No one had seen or heard from Xander or Constance in nearly a month and Buffy was starting to crack.  
  
Dawn turned over in her bed, trying to muffle the sounds of her older sister crying in the next room. It was just past two in the morning. She couldn't remember Buffy ever crying this much. Buffy wasn't a crier, some girls were, but not Buffy. It was so unlike her.  
  
But none of this was right.  
  
Dawn had never been told the actual details of what had been going on, every one thought she was just too young to handle it, but she had managed to learn through less then honest means the gist of the story. She figured she had the right, and if she had to eavesdrop to find the truth, well then she wasn't above it.  
  
Not that she didn't feel bad about that, but she couldn't help it.  
  
And Dawn was learning the hard way that sometimes knowing was worse then not knowing. Mainly because there was nothing she could do. Nothing anyone could do. Not Buffy, not her mom, no one. And it all just seemed to get worse and worse each day.  
  
Giles had insurance on the magic shop, so at least he got something out of all this wreck, but money wasn't important. It was nice and it bought you things, but it couldn't give you piece of mind. Not in this situation. All he did read books and take notes. He was growing obsessed with Constance's past, positive something there would undo do it.  
  
Willow was worse because she blamed herself. Solely blamed herself. She figured since she had lifted the curse she'd pretty much just let Constance back in. Every day she just seemed less and less like the Willow she'd become, confident and assured, and more like the Willow she was, shy and hesitant. Not even Tara could talk her out of it.  
  
And Buffy was fanatical. She'd been over the town about a hundred times, looking for anything. Anything. But it was always the same. And every night she cried. Just cried because there was nothing else to do. Dawn was never sure if Buffy was awake or not when she cried, she'd never gotten the nerve to go and check on her, but she was pretty sure she was. A few times their mom had gone in, but Dawn never heard a word about it from either of them. Buffy mostly wanted to be like she felt, alone.  
  
Dawn didn't think much about she felt herself. She just couldn't. Even skirting the issue now made her stomach knot. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And it seemed like it would never end.  
  
Dawn realized that's what worried her the most as silent tears began to slip down her face. That was the knot in her stomach. The fear she didn't want to face. That thought alone.  
  
What if it never does?  
  
****  
  
Willow sat at her desk and tried to concentrate on the book in front of her. She needed to finish this chapter in order to be prepared for her test tomorrow, but part of her just felt like it was a waste. Why should she even bother anymore? She felt guilty still being in college considering everything going on. But Tara and Giles had pushed her to continue, and she'd agreed more or less. Buffy had had no opinion on the matter, but hadn't gone herself in weeks.  
  
Rubbing her eyes as she checked the clock, nearly 3am, she turned page to the last page she had left when she heard it.  
  
It almost sounded like a whisper.  
  
At first, convinced it was only her cat, she ignored it, till words more into her pages, she heard it again.  
  
Louder and most definitely calling her name.  
  
"Willow..."  
  
Turning her chair to look behind her, she called out but received no answer. Before she could turn back to her book, it was back.  
  
"Willow... come here Willow."  
  
Unable to stop herself from following the voice, a voice she knew but couldn't place, she got up. Unexplainably she followed it. It grew louder as she wandered through her apartment. Louder and more familiar. Almost masculine, but not quite.  
  
Soon she found where the voice had led her too, the mirror above the bathroom sink.  
  
Willow stared at her own image in front of her, aware and not aware of what was really happening.  
  
"Willow... I have called you to show you something."  
  
Suddenly she knew the voice. The monotone voice she'd heard only weeks ago. It was Alecto, one of the three Furies. The one who had begun to warn her against lifting the curse. Willow continued to look straight ahead and saw Alecto appear just behind her left shoulder in the mirror.  
  
"I have warned you that your actions could have dire consequences. I have warned you that not all ends can be seen, but you insisted. You chose. And now your fate has been cast."  
  
Willow found that she was gripping the sink hard now, trying not to be afraid, but very much so despite herself.  
  
"We Furies are not the only three. We are not the only deciders of this world. There are others."  
  
As she said this Alecto's image began to fade, and in her place came another. A woman not unpleasant to look at, rather plain, but inspired equal fear in Willow. She was not terrible like the Furies, but she felt as if she was wise and powerful.  
  
"I am Lachesis. My sisters and I are the weavers of fate. My youngest spins the thread and my eldest cuts it. I decide what it is to become. All fates are important. All fates are precious. I carefully pick and choose the ends, but not how they are achieved. We are at a crossroads Willow, you and I."  
  
Willow had a bad feeling about this.  
  
"There are three paths before you. One you must choose. I can not tell you with perfect clarity what lies at the end of each path, but I can acquaint you with some of the aftermath."  
  
"I don't know what you mean."  
  
"Perhaps I should start further back. Let us start with the number three. Three is an important number. There are three fates, three furies, and three choices for you to make. Your friend, the slayer and the evil make three. Their fates are now entangled. Now, if something happens to one it happens to all. Do you understand as much?"  
  
Willow did understand. As Lachesis spoke to her she had a clear picture in her head of three threads woven into one.  
  
"To undo the damage, to un-ensnare their fates, one alone must be removed."  
  
Willow now saw, with perfect clarity, in her minds eye one thread coming out of the woven three, disappearing from view, leaving the other two intact.  
  
"So how do we get rid of Constance?" Willow asked abruptly.  
  
Lachesis looked sternly at her.  
  
"That is not for me to say."  
  
"But..."  
  
"You have three paths to choose from. One will destroy them all. One will destroy this world. And one will restore the designated order of things."  
  
"How do I choose? Why me? I don't..."  
  
"You choose because you were the one who created this chaos. You wished the curse lifted and set this in motion and now you must set it right again."  
  
"You're saying that it is my fault..."  
  
"Fate has no fault."  
  
"What is it I'm suppose to do then? You've told me what'll happen, who do any of this?"  
  
"You have three choices, some easier then others."  
  
"What? I'll do what I have to, it's got to be better then doing nothing."  
  
"Nothing will only lead you down the second path."  
  
"Okay, so if we do nothing the world ends. What are my other choices?"  
  
"If you destroy the evil, you will destroy them all."  
  
"So, that's not really a choice either. I just want to know how I set this right?"  
  
Lachesis eyes pierced into hers, cold, hard and calculating.  
  
"To restore the order of things as they were before, you must destroy your friend.  
  
****  
  
Willow's head flew up off her desk with a start.  
  
"Willow, I'm back," Tara called from the front room, "sorry I took so long getting the food. I forgot I didn't have money and... what's wrong?"  
  
Willow looked from Tara to the desk and around the room a few times.  
  
"Are you alright?" Tara asked.  
  
Willow shook her head and looked to the clock.  
  
8:43pm.  
  
"How long..."  
  
"I left about an hour ago," Tara supplied, "did you fall asleep?"  
  
"I don't know...I mean I'm not sure. Maybe. Yes, I think so."  
  
Willow stood up and not quite sure what to do with herself walked towards the bathroom.  
  
"Honey?" she heard Tara call from behind her, but she paid no attention.  
  
Once to the bathroom she found she couldn't go in.  
  
"Maybe you should lie down. You've been really stressed..."  
  
"No, no. I'm okay," Willow said half-heartidly. "I just needed..."  
  
Willow stopped talking and stepped inside, turning on the light and looking to the mirror.  
  
"Are you sure you're okay?" Tara asked, deeply concerned.  
  
"When did that happen?"  
  
"What sweetie?" Tara asked, confused by her whole attitude.  
  
"The mirror."  
  
Tara looked up and saw what she was talking about.  
  
"I don't know. It wasn't like that this morning."  
  
"That's what I was afraid of," Willow said as she stared into at herself, split by the cracked mirror before her.  
  
**** 


	12. Stranger

**Fury by SLynn**

**Chapter 12:  Stranger**

Giles was just getting ready for bed when he was stalled by Willow and Tara.  After telling Tara the details of her dream, she felt it necessary to involve Giles as soon as possible, but not Buffy.  They would leave it up to him to decide what she should know.  The conversation did not go well.

"Let me get this straight," Giles began after a rather long pause, "you're telling me that the Fates want you to kill Xander?"

"I think so," Willow sighed, "or I've just bought the last ticket to Nutsville.  I don't know Giles, that's why we're here."

"I've never…" he began but ended with, "Tell me again what were their options?"  
  


"If I do nothing the world ends, not good.  If I kill Constance she kills Xander and Buffy, still not good.  And if I kill Xander everything will be back in order."

"Did they say what that order was?"

"No.  Just that my getting the curse lifted through things out of whack."

Giles began to pace the room.

"And they were clear about the… um… killing part?"

"Kill.  Destroy.  Po-tay-toe.  Po-tah-toe.  Right?"

"Not necessarily but likely as clear as it's going to get."

"So now what?"  Tara asked, "Willow _can't_ do it."

"But if I don't do something they said the world would be destroyed," Willow cut in, "I mean, I appreciate the help, but couldn't they have been a bit more specific?  Dates, times, real outcomes, we've got nothing."

"Let me look into this," Giles said after a beat.  "There has to be more to this.  We have time to decide what to do.  Besides, we don't even know where Constance is keeping him yet.  Until then nothing _can_ be done."

Willow and Tara nodded but didn't feel much relief.  It just got stranger and stranger.

****

Another day was about to pass.  Xander knew that soon someone would be showing up soon.  Even without a clock he was beginning to just get a feel for about what time it would happen.  Except this time it wasn't a stranger.  Constance was back.

"Did you miss me?" she asked as soon as she was inside the door.

Xander wasn't too surprised, but didn't answer.  He knew that sooner or later she'd come back.  Might as well be today.

She accepted his silence and crossed the room to him.

"I think it's time you got out of here, don't you?"  
  


"You're not letting me go," Xander stated flatly.  It wasn't a question and it held no hope.  He knew better then that.

"No," she said standing directly in front of him now, "let's call it a field trip.  It's time for you to start earning your keep."

"Where are we going?" he asked beginning to feel nervous.

"That's my business, but _we're_ not going anywhere."

"What do you mean?"

Constance smiled at him.

Before he could say anything or even remove the startled look from his face, she'd placed a hand to his forehead.

"This might hurt a bit," was the last thing he remembered hearing from her before blacking out entirely.

****

Buffy wandered through the cemetery careless of the late hour.  Sunnydale was tonight and had been every night since Constance had first arrived.  Occasionally she slayed a vamp, but mostly Buffy was alone with her thoughts.    Most nights she was home before two o'clock, but tonight she felt like staying out.  It gave her a chance to think.  And she had a lot to think about tonight.

Giles and Willow had been too quiet all day.  It felt like they'd been hiding something.  It was that feeling you get when you enter a room and the conversation stops.  You know that the parties involved had to be talking about you, but you didn't know what they had to say.

And then there was Xander.  She knew he was alive but only because she seemed to think she'd know if he was dead.  It was strange.  Before she had thought this whole 'connection' business wasn't real, now she was certain of it.  Giles had tried working with her on locating Xander just after he was taken, but it was no use.  She couldn't use the link the same way he could and until he did use it to contact her they were just going to have to search for him the old fashion way.

Not that that was going well either.  No one would talk mostly because no one knew anything.  The only odd occurrences in Sunnydale lately were the complete lack of odd occurrences.

It made no sense.

Giles had thought up hundreds of scenarios to supply them ideas of what Constance might be up too, but without word one from her, they were really just blind guesses.

Buffy sighed and scanned the grounds once more.  There really was no point to staying out any longer.  She was getting cold and wanted to be home more then anything when a movement behind the farthest hedge caught her attention.

Edging closer and preparing herself to fight if needed, she tried to get a better look.  Headed away from her, further into the cemetery was a tallish man, thin and dragging what looked like a bat.

Just seeing him set off her senses and she began to trail him to get a better idea what he was up too.  As far as she could see, he looked lost and somewhat dazed but otherwise kept moving in a straight path.

Before he could leave out the back gate she decided she should at least do something.  The closer she got the more odd it seemed, and yet the more familiar.  On guard she now came up about three feet from his back and spoke.

"Kind of late for a walk, isn't it?"

Moving quicker then she'd expected him too, he swung round on her, she had just enough time to duck the axe she'd mistaken for a bat.  Failing to knock it from him, she did manage to knock the man to his feet.

And then she froze.

"Xander…"

He pushed himself up off the ground and looked about him, somewhat dazed and still clutching the axe in his right hand.  Buffy, still in shocked and finally getting a good look at him realized that her mistaking him for a stranger had been an easy one.  He just wasn't the same.  Thin and pale and just not himself.

"Xander," she repeated starting to recover herself, "I can't believe it."

As she approached him, eager to just touch him and prove to herself he was real, his attitude of sullenness disappeared.

"Don't," he snapped at her and took several steps back.  She hadn't failed to notice that he also tightened his grip on the handle of the weapon he carried and had even half raised it before him.

"What's happened to you?" she asked trying hard not to let her emotions get to her, "How did you get away?  Are you alright?"

"I have to go," was all he said as he started to turn.

"No," she shot back at him, rushing forward and taking him by the arm, "Xander what's wrong?"

The moment she touched him she knew.  She felt it.  Horrible and bloody and real.  She knew where he'd been and why.  The jolt of it sent her reeling backwards and him to his knees.

"It's not real," she whispered when finally she could speak at all, "It's not.  It can't be."

"Why not?"

Buffy knew the voice and knew that she had to get up, or likely die where she had fallen.  

"Don't you think he's capable?"

"He wouldn't," Buffy started, finally getting to her feet and squaring off against Constance who now stood just beside Xander, still on the ground.

"And again, why not?  I think you've underestimated what our dear friend Xander here would and would not do for quite some time.  You don't really know."

Despite what she'd seen, what she'd felt, she refused to give in.

"I know…"

"Buffy," Xander cut her off, his voice edgy but determined, "it's true."

She looked at him, now standing beside Constance, and saw that he was himself.  Could read his eyes and know he believed what he said.

"Then she must have…"

"She wasn't there," he cut in again, "I…I did it."

For a moment no one spoke.  Xander and Buffy seemed only to see each other and Constance, unwilling to stop herself, laughed.

"I told you you'd be surprised."

Buffy didn't know what to do or to say.  Xander looked as if he was falling a part and she didn't know how to stop it.  She wanted to say so much, but he had never felt more like a stranger to her then he did now.

"We're wasting time here," Constance finally said, "Time to go.  But don't worry we'll see you again real soon."

"Xander wait," Buffy blurted out, shocked that he'd turned to leave with Constance without even an argument.

"No, no, no," Constance said turning back to her and casually flinging her hand towards the slayer, "Not your place princess.  You stay here."

Buffy found herself propelled several feet backwards into one of the larger gravestones.  By the time she'd gotten up again, they were gone.

****

A phone ringing earlier then seven o'clock in the morning, or later then eleven o'clock at night, is never in general good news.

With it being well after ten in the morning, Willow had no such apprehensions upon answering her phone that day.  She had been sleeping late, a luxury to say the least, and knew she should have gotten up sooner, but Tara had insisted she stay in bed and she wasn't one to argue.

"Hello?" she asked still a bit groggy.

Tara came into the room and mouthed her apologizes for not answering it herself.  Willow waved her off, it wasn't important.

"Hi Mom."

Tara smiled.  She liked Mrs. Rosenberg.  Maybe they could all meet for lunch later.

"What?  Mom, what are you saying?  I don't…"

Tara, who had been on her way into the bathroom, stopped and came back in, saw the concern on her girlfriends face, and sat down at the edge of the bed.

"No.  Mom, no."

She looked near tears.  Tara, deeply concerned laid a hand on her leg and questioned her with her eyes.

"Okay, okay.  I'll be over soon.  Yeah.  I love you too."

Willow hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?  Is everything okay?" Tara asked.

Willow shook her head and ran a hand through her hair.

"Willow, what is it?"

"It's the Harris'," she chocked out, "Xander's parents are dead."

Tara slowly turned Willow's face by the chin so that they were face to face, deliberate, her eyes cool.

"It is the beginning," she said in a slow monotone voice.


	13. Together

**Fury by SLynn**

**Notes:** Yeah, it's been awhile. I think I've gotten over my massive case of writer's block. Thanks for reading.

**Chapter 13: Together**

"…she may have doubted you but I never have…"

She was still going on and on. Xander could hardly hear her anymore. Doubted he'd heard a word she'd said. All he wanted right now was to wake up and have this all behind him. His mind wanted to rationalize. It wanted to believe it wasn't true. Maybe it's all just been a horrible, horrible nightmare.

But he knew that it wasn't that it couldn't have been. He'd told Buffy so himself. He did this, no one had made him. It was real. It was happening.

Unable to stop himself Xander found himself on his knees retching. The only notice Constance took of him was to step slightly to her left, but otherwise she continued on with her speeches.

"…just like I planned. Her face, did you see her face? I knew she'd react like that, just knew it…"

Xander still wasn't listening. His head throbbing clutched between his hands as he kneeled on the floor at her feet.

"…we'll show her. We'll show all of them. Next time won't be nearly so easy, but I know you can do it."

"Next time?" he asked. That he had heard. That had struck him hard.

"Don't be silly, of course there will be a next time," she said with her condescending smile.

"No."

"What did you say?" She sounded shocked and angry, her sweet voice filled with venom and suddenly much louder then before.

"I said no. I won't do it again. I don't know why I did…"

Xander's voice had started off strong but trailed off at the end. He still didn't understand it, couldn't understand why. Mostly, he didn't want too. 

"Listen to me," Constance said calmly as she leaned down to look him in the eye, "_you_ did this. You said it yourself. _I_ wasn't there and _I_ didn't make you. It was all _you_. And you already know why. You didn't love them. You hated them and with good reason. They were awful people Xander who got what they deserved. We both know that. After everything they put you through? Were you expected to put up with it forever? No. No one could."

Constance slowly placed an arm around his waist and helped him to sit back up on the cot. Despite himself he found that listening to her was almost soothing. As if her words could justify his actions, not make him forget, but make the memory of it seem righteous.

"Xander, I've chosen you because I can see what you're capable of. No one else does, but I do. Together you and I are going to rule this world, but first there are things you must put in order. Certain wrongs you have to right. And there are a lot of people who have wronged you. Before I can trust you completely to be with me you have to prove yourself. Can you do that?"

Buffy was outraged. Giles and Willow had finally decided to fill her in on everything. Considering the additional warning received via Tara, they felt they could no longer wait or hold back. Something had to be done. Now.

"How?" She stammered, "How could you even consider it? And how could you not tell me? This is insane. You're not seriously thinking about it, are you?"

No one spoke. They sat huddled around the Summer's family dinning table, Joyce included. Only Dawn had been left out, Giles feeling she was a bit too young for this discussion.

Buffy looked at each of them in turn, waiting to be answered.

"Buffy please, this isn't what anyone wants," Willow finally put forward.

"So you believe he did this? That's he's responsible?"

"Regardless of what I believe, after what you've said, I do believe he's dangerous." Giles answered, "And what's more, I think we should warn Anya, and all of Xander's acquaintances."

"Unreal, completely unreal. So the answer is to avoid him then kill him?"

"Buffy, the Fates said…" Willow started.  
  
"I don't care what the Fates said. How do you know that's not just another mind trick of Constance's? How are any of us to know what's real and what isn't?"

There was a sudden knock at the door.

"Excuse me," Joyce said getting up, Buffy following a bit behind. Despite her believe that Xander wasn't attacking people on his own, she wouldn't put it past Constance to try something here.

"Can I help you?" Buffy heard her ask someone just outside her home.

"I'm here to see Buffy. I have information for her about our mutual friend."

It was a man's voice, but not one she knew. Joyce turned and looked at her oldest daughter and Buffy came forward to see who it was.

"Hello Buffy," the older man said. "I am very glad to see you once more. A lot has happened in the short time we've been apart."

"Do I know you?"

He was a complete stranger to her. He was probably getting close to seventy, and had Buffy not been a slayer, she would have thought he was just some harmless old man who might be a bit soft in the head. But living on a hellmouth, you never could trust in things like that.

"Very well. You know me very well," he said smiling a very grandfatherly smile. "May I come in?"

"No," Buffy said instinctively, "What do you want?"

Giles had now entered the living room, wondering what the delay was and stood listening with Joyce.

"I am not a vampire my dear, its midday and sunny out. Truly, you needn't be afraid."

"Answer my question."

"I've come to help you. To help myself in truth. We are all in this together. The Fates likely didn't warn your friend of that. They don't care much for me, or my kind. Typically we fall outside of their realm, being what we are. But that is not the case now. Not at all."

"I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"Don't you? Well, if I could come inside I could explain it all. Standing and talking in this manner is rather undignified."

His eyes shone as he spoke. Buffy paused for a moment and then pulled the door open letting him in.

"There's a good girl," he said stepping forward and nodding to Joyce. The old man settled himself into the easy chair.

"Rupert, please get the other two, they should hear this as well. And Dawn dear, come sit on the couch, you'll find you hear better in the same room as the rest of us."

Giles a bit surprised to be addressed by name did as he was asked just as Dawn came out of the basement where she'd obviously been eavesdropping and sat beside Buffy on the couch.

As soon as everyone had gathered, the man again turned to Buffy.

"Do you know me now dear?"

Buffy said nothing but shook her head.

"I hadn't counted on that. I assumed you would. But there are a lot of things I hadn't counted on. It seems I have begun to outlive my usefulness," he said with a laugh, "It happens to the best of us."

There was a silence that followed, and then the old man looked at them as if he was going to cry.

"It is so good to see you all. I feel like we are friends. I feel at home here. She filled my own thoughts with so few good things, but he at least had a few. He was different then her normal prey."

"Zothos," Buffy whispered in disbelief.

He smiled at her.

"So you do remember me after all."

"Why are you here?" she asked, "You left. And what's with the…" She cut herself off, thinking it might be rude to continue with 'old man body' but he smiled and even laughed a bit as if he knew what she'd almost said.

"I am here because I can be no where else. Constance had a much stronger hold over me then I had ever realized. Listen to me; had as if she still didn't. She has us all you know."

The weight of the words struck them all.

"This is her real game you know. The suffering. The agony. She lives for it. Feeds off of it."

"Then you don't know what to do either," Buffy said hopelessly.

"No, I know what must be done. But I, like you, can not bring myself to do it."

"You mean…"

"We must restore the order of things as they were before."

It was the first time Xander had gotten a good look at his surroundings outside of his room. As he'd guessed, they were near the water. He'd seen the ocean from a window, the only one not blacked out. And today he'd seen sunshine.

Xander had been surprised when Constance had asked him to follow her from the cell. She'd never done that before. Never asked him to do anything before; just commanded. They'd gone down a hall and two flights of steps and into a basement.

Two steps into the basement and Xander stopped. Something about the room, it was little more then one big room, was completely wrong.

Constance stopped right in the middle and turned around slowly.

"There's nothing to be afraid of honey. Not while you're with me."

Xander took a few more steps and glancing around, rubbed his eyes. Maybe it was just the light playing tricks on him, he really hadn't seen the sun in so long it was possible, but he thought he'd saw the walls move.

"I'd turn on the light, but they don't like that," Constance said with a just visible wicked smirk.

Now he knew he hadn't imagined it. Looking as close as he could without moving closer, Xander examined the walls. They were pulsing. Seething and oozing. Bubbling and black.

"What is it?" he found himself saying.

"A little something I brought back with me. They're my helpers."

"How? Is it alive?"

"In a way. They won't hurt you. Trust me."

Xander took a few more steps into the room. He tried not to look at the walls, but found that he couldn't help himself."

Constance just stood there, watching him.

Suddenly Xander felt his head start to ache. His heart began to race and his mind exploded with thoughts both terrifying and familiar. The next thing he knew Constance was standing over him.

"Better now?" she asked with her ever smiling face.

Xander, surprised to find he was lying on the floor, didn't answer. His head was still throbbing a bit, but nothing like it had before.

"What happened? What are those things?"  
  
"Let's just say, they're from out of town."


	14. Tied in Knots

**Fury by SLynn**

**Chapter 14: Tied in Knots**

"Here is the problem as we know it." Zothos began to explain, "Constance has weaved together our lives. Each life is a thread; spun, measured and cut in accordance to what we have to accomplish. Constance had, at first, extended her natural life by tying herself to me. Bored, I can only assume, she began to toy with the idea of attaching others. Life force she no longer desired, she wanted power. Her first and only aim upon entering Sunnydale was you Buffy."  
  
"But why…"

"I'm coming to that," he said gently, "She knew that you were a strong slayer. Powerful. And if she could entangle you as well, she would be that much stronger. So she watched you, we watched you – I was always with her. We watched all of you and after many weeks her focus changed. She became less interested in you Buffy and more with Xander. I can't be sure because I wasn't always privy to her thoughts as she was mine, but I think it was his ordinariness that drew her in. The rest of you have either special powers or training he does not, yet he was always with you. Always fighting and surviving, and for the first time I think she felt something like respect for him."

"She was watching us for weeks?" Willow asked disbelievingly.

"Many weeks. That is always her way. She is meticulous in her planning, but not enough this time. As I said she came her for Buffy, but that changed. She had decided to take you both. She wanted your power still, but I never could understand why she took him. I think at first it was just to break him, just to prove that he wasn't special. That he couldn't be, but she was wrong. He continuously fought her. More then she'd been use too."  
  
He paused as if the memory troubled him.

"I'm sorry, I was still with her then. It is hard to recall, painful. I couldn't stop her. Early in our entanglement I had tried, very often, to fight her and stop her, but without ever succeeding. I'm sorry to admit that by the time your friend Xander became her prey, I'd given up trying. I wish I had."

Again he paused and collected himself.

"Eventually, she did succeed and took over him, and his thoughts became ours. His memories, all of it. That never leaves you. I was released from her, the details of which are not important, and I felt safe that she would not return. But still I imparted a warning with you both. I warned him to be watchful of Constance's return and you to be watchful of him. That was my mistake. I should have let you know as well that she would be back. I knew she would, but as it could no longer affect me, I simply didn't care. That is, until I found I couldn't leave."

Now he was up pacing the room obviously worried.

"At first I thought I stayed on my own accord. That I had grown use to your dimension and your way of life. Then, I found myself drawn to you. To all of you. I, like Constance before me, have been watching you all for weeks now. Watching you with his memories in my head and yet unable to act. I realized that I could not leave this place, that things were not right yet, not yet undone. Constance's removal to the dimension you sent her to should have freed me, I thought it would. But when it hadn't I knew then that she was no longer the force keeping me here. It was him."

"This is how you're doing it. These things are putting those thoughts in my head, aren't they? They're making me act like this." Xander said in a near frantic tone.

"I told you, I'm not making you do anything. Neither are 'these things' as you call them."

"No, you're lying," he said getting to his feet and stepping back a few paces, "I felt it, just now. Looking at them. They're…"  
  
"They're just helping you along a bit. They can't make you feel things you don't already feel. Want to do things you've never thought of. They just amplify those feelings and emotions. Everyone is capable of doing evil Xander. Didn't you know that?"

"I don't believe you," he said somewhat unconvincingly.

"Don't you? Well then, how about we go and visit some of your friends. I'm sure they've never done anything to upset or hurt you, right?"

Xander didn't move.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Constance said smiling.

"No."  
  
"You can't spend the rest of your life here. If 'these things' are making you do it, you could stop them if you tried. Let's go try."

"No."

"Not yet then, alright." She said after a few seconds, "You should go back and rest for awhile. We have things to do tonight and I have some friends coming over to help."

"Friends?" he asked his head still reeling.

"Yes, not like these," she said indicating the walls, "but just as useful."

Xander nodded once automatically and turned to go up the stairs.

"And sweetheart," she added, "don't go anywhere."

"I'm not sure I understand," Giles said after a more then a moments pause. It was getting late, nearly dusk.

"It all comes back to the fates and the threads of life. Constance had tied hers to mine, so to speak, and then to Xander. In doing so, she also tied my life force to his. Even when her pact with me was broken, that link back to him remained. As does yours Buffy. So now mine, yours, Xander's and Constance's lives are, shall we say, tied in knots."

"But if your lives are tied like that, won't killing Xander…" Willow said with comprehension draining the color of her face.

"Kill us all?" Zothos finished almost lightheartedly, "It's possible. I'm sure only the Fates know. They're fickle like that. They're idea of setting things right could be to eliminate us all, or not. They like their secrets. It may not even be possible to kill any of us. I am an immortal; sometimes that has its advantages."

"So tied to you, Xander could just stay trapped with Constance forever?" Buffy asked.

"It also has its disadvantages."

"But the Furies poison…" Giles started and trailed off.

"It would have driven him mad eventually, but it would not have killed him."

"Does she know this?" Buffy asked, "Any of it, do you know that?"

"I do not." Zothos answered, "I feel like she might have planned it, or at least part of it. I know she bound me to him for a specific reason. She needed him alive and strong if for some reason she was forced away, to ensure she had someone to come back too. But, I don't think…"  
  
He stopped and looked at Buffy thoughtfully.

"I don't think she knows about you. She's never understood love."

Xander must have fallen asleep. He wasn't sure, time was getting harder and harder to keep up with. He knows that he went upstairs and back to his cell, but everything after that until this moment was fuzzy.

He hopes he's only been asleep.

He'd planned on fighting. He'd planned on making a break for the door. Something. Anything. But he hadn't. She was definitely doing something to him. Xander just found that he couldn't disobey her.

He sat up and stared at the door.

It was probably unlocked. Xander realized now he'd never even tried it. It was like back at the school all over again. The door was probably unlocked and he hadn't even thought about it.

How does she do it?

Xander slowly stood up and forced himself across the room.

Every step was a struggle but he made it. But even though he made it, he couldn't bring himself to get his hand onto the doorknob.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath and made his way back, effortlessly, to the cot.

This wasn't going to work. He had to fight this. Xander knew he'd sat by too passive for the last few weeks. Forget that, he'd sat by too passive for his whole life. He'd gone with her so that she wouldn't hurt his friends, but he should have realized even then she was always planning on doing that.

He just had to try harder.

Xander blew out a breath and stood back up. Telling himself over and over that he was going out that door, he walked too it. It wasn't as hard as it had been the first time, but it was still a struggle. Xander took in a breath this time and grabbed the doorknob. He'd had his eyes shut so the first sign of success was the audible click of the door coming loose from the frame. 

Xander looked quickly out into the hall, left then right, and then walked out towards where he thought the exit might be.

That's when the headache started. Xander's head started to throb loudly in his ears. He pushed past the pain and kept walking down the hall, but every step made it that much worse.

Xander made it down some steps to the ground floor, he wasn't even sure how. He was within sight of the front door, when he heard something. It sounded like people, lots of people, coming from the basement.

Curiosity got the best of him. He knew he shouldn't, knew he should just run while he had the chance, but the thought of people down there with those things made him uneasy.

Xander slowly cracked the door open and peeked down the steps. The basement was full. Constance was still standing where she'd been when he'd left, and she was talking to them all. He couldn't hear what she was saying to them, but they all seemed to be giving her their full attention. A few he recognized from around town. A few he'd gone to school with.

Slowly it dawned on him.

Those things. Those god damned things she'd brought back with her. She was going to wind all of these people up, feed them full of rage, and set them loose in town.

Xander backed up, trying not to panic. There were probably a hundred people down there. Maybe more. Maybe she'd already rounded up more before now. There was no telling. The town was going to be full of half-crazed axe-wielding maniacs in no time, he had to warn someone.

And Xander knew who.


	15. Home Again

**Fury by SLynn**

**Notes:** Thank you all for your reviews! It really does keep me writing. More to come.

**Chapter 15: Home Again**

No one had left the Summer's home despite the ever increasing hour.

Willow and Tara sat talking quietly on the couch trying to make sense of the last few hours, no, the last few days of their lives.

Giles, Joyce and Zothos were in the kitchen having tea. They talked of options that they didn't really have and what they could or could not do next.

Buffy was in her room, where she had been for quite some time. She still hadn't managed to compose herself, but she felt stronger somehow for knowing what was said.

Perhaps that's why it was Dawn, and only Dawn, alone on the steps who had heard the noise in the basement.

Inquisitive might as well have been her middle name, because there wasn't a strange noise, new rumor, hidden object she didn't endeavor to find out.

Making her way down the steps, she could hardly expect to find what she did. She'd been expecting a cat. At the most, maybe a raccoon. One had gotten in before, it wasn't unheard of.

Dawn snapped on the lights and scanned the room.

The window above the washer was open and the screen was bent. Raccoons didn't do that and Dawn was beginning to think this was a very bad idea.

Quick as she could she made her way to the washer, climbed up on it to shut the window then jumped back down. As she turned the scream died in her throat as she found herself nearly face to face with Xander.

"Don't scream Dawnie," he said quietly, holding up his hands as if to grab hold of her arms then suddenly stopping, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Dawn complied, but just barely. He looked horrible, she'd barely recognized him.

"Is Buffy here?" he asked taking a few steps back and looking up the staircase nervously.

"Yes," she just managed. He'd never made her uneasy before, but the last time they'd been alone together he wasn't exactly himself. Literally. She wasn't so sure he was now.

"Get her. Get her down here. Please. Now."

He was speaking haltingly, as if it hurt. To Dawn he looked as if he was in serious pain.

"I could get you Giles or Willow too," Dawn offered. She just wanted to help, "They're all upstairs."  
  
"No," he said sharply, "Just Buffy. Don't tell anyone else. Don't come back with her either. Just Buffy."

Dawn nodded and made stepped gingerly around him towards the steps. She took one look back at him before leaving the basement and as quickly as she could without running, and went to Buffy's room.

She knocked twice before throwing open the door.

"What is it?" Buffy asked startled by her entrance and a little by the look on Dawn's face.

"…downstairs…."  
  
"What? Dawn," Buffy said getting irritated, "what?"

"…Xander…"  
  
Buffy's heart stopped.

"He's here?"  
  
Dawn just nodded. Buffy started to get past her when she took hold of her arm.

"Buffy wait," she said, "he's in the basement. No one else knows."

"Why?"  
  
"I don't know. He wants to talk with you, just you. I don't know if you should."

Buffy was about to contradict her, brush her off, but she saw how serious her sister was.

"He won't hurt me, I'll be fine."

Dawn nodded and let go but reluctantly.

Buffy made her way down the stairs, trying not to draw attention to herself. She stole a quick glance into the living room and kitchen before going into the basement. Dawn had come down and sat on the stairs again, Buffy knew she'd be listening for any signs of a struggle.

Buffy hardly knew what to think as she made her way into the basement. Part of her expected it to be a trick. To find Constance instead of Xander, but another part knew he was there. She could just tell.

"Xander?" she whispered into the room.

"Over here," he said quietly from behind the staircase. He was sitting down on a few boxes and had his head between his hands. He hadn't even looked up at her.

She didn't know what to say. Didn't move. Couldn't. So she stared at him, waiting for him to look up, but he didn't seem to want too.

"I can't stay long," he said without moving. She'd barely heard him over her own heartbeat. "She probably already knows… I wasn't planning this."

Still she didn't answer. Xander was now rocking a bit on his feet, back and forth, rubbing his head.

"I was just going to see if I could, and then I had too."

"Had to what?"

"I had too…" he stopped abruptly. They both heard it. A noise upstairs, loud but soon passing. Probably just Buffy's mom getting something from the pantry.

"Buffy?"

She was a bit surprised to find him almost face to face her. He'd moved quietly out of the corner without her realizing it. Buffy, like Dawn, wasn't able to hide her surprise. Xander looked awful. She'd seen him just the other night, but not without really seeing him.

"Do I really look that bad?" he asked almost lightly and she couldn't help laughing. And then, without warning, she was crying.

"I don't care how you look," she said pulling him to her, "I'm just so glad to see you."

"Buffy," Xander said softly into her ear, "I can't stay."

"Yes you can."  
  
"No," he said with more animation now. More then she'd seen from him in quite some time. "She's going to know where I am. She's going to come here and…"

"Then let her," she fired back, just barely remembering to keep her voice down. "Let her. We'll fight her. We'll do something. You can't just…"  
  
"What? Buffy, you don't understand. I…"

Xander stopped suddenly and nearly collapsed.

"What's wrong? Xander, talk to me. What's happening?"  
  
"I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth, pulling himself out of her reach. "I just don't have a lot of time left."  
  
"I don't…."  
  
"Neither do I," he finished. "She's stronger now. And she has these things. Find out what they are. They feed off of bad feelings, strong emotions. They're small, black and gooey. I don't know how to describe them. She said she brought them with her."  
  
"What do they do?" she asked, still concerned for his present state.

"Bad things Buffy," was all he would say. Constance's lecture about them still echoing in his head, "Very bad."

"I'll find out then," she said without asking more.

"She's using them on people Buffy. Regular people," he said making his way back towards the window. "I don't know what'll happen, but she's planning something big."

"Wait," she said grapping hold of his arm, "I should fill you in on what we've found…"  
  
"No," he cut in sharply, "Don't. If I know it, she may too. Don't tell me anything." 

"You can't go back," she said, refusing to let go of his arm. Her eyes filled with tears.

"I'll be fine," he said just touching her hand with his. They locked eyes for a moment, each wanting to say more. "I'll see you again. I promise."

Buffy nodded and he was gone.

Xander was less then surprised to find Constance waiting for him. He knew she would be.

"So," she said getting up from his cot as he came into the cell, "how's your girlfriend?"

Xander stood his ground and refused to answer. Didn't even move.

"Your head must be feeling better now that your home. You shouldn't be out when I tell you to stay in. That's not being very obedient."

Still nothing from him.

"Silent treatment?" she asked with a smile, "I like that game. Quiet determination. Very heroic, but it won't last."

She took a few steps towards him and he still didn't react. Constance was beginning to loose her patience.

"Did you tell her what you saw? Did you ask her for help? Did she kiss you goodnight?"

Finally, she'd hit a nerve and she knew it.

"Poor Xander," her voice full of mock sympathy, "Everything you've done for her and she still doesn't even register that you're a man. That's got to hurt a bit. Someone should teach her a lesson."

He didn't like the sound of this. It sounded too much like the other night, just before she'd sent him out.

"No," she said as she walked around him to the door, "Not yet. Soon."

Xander breathed a sigh of relief, but not out loud. Not where she could see.

"However," she said shutting the two of them in, "I think you and I need to go back over the basics tonight. Seems to me that you need a refresher course in respect."


	16. The Storytellers

**Fury by SLynn**

**Chapter 16:  The Storytellers**

Buffy, not long after Xander's departure, joined the rest of the gathered party.  Dawn was wide-eyed and impatient to hear what had been said, but Buffy wasn't complying.

She had no intention telling them he'd been there.  Not yet at least.

Everyone was in the dining room, discussing as before what to do.  Zothos was once again speaking.

"If it was to be done, you'd have to weaken him first.  I believe she is transferring power to him, making him strong."  
  
"There are spells that do that," Willow said quietly, "I can start looking them up."  
  
"So it's back to plan B already, 'kill Xander'," Buffy said catching all of their attention.

"No one wants this Buffy," Giles said somberly.

"I don't hear any other suggestions being made," Buffy replied, "Don't we owe it to him to at least try something else first."

Giles gave her a curious look.

"Do you have one?" he asked, "A suggestion."

"What if," she began coming and sitting at the table, "he's being controlled…"  
  
"Well, it's Xander," Willow jumped in, "of course he is.  No one would think…"  
  
"Let me finish," Buffy cut her off, "What if it's something Constance brought with her, or conjured.  Something that feeds off of the bad feelings you have."

She had everyone's full attention.

"There are lots of things that could do that," Tara added, "Constance would be strong enough to make them herself."

"If we could find out what it was," Buffy said more confidently now, "we could stop it.  Stop her control over him.  It would give us more time to straighten this mess out."

"Where would we begin?" Giles seemed to ask himself.

"It sounds dangerous," Zothos said gravely, leaning back into his chair, "The Fates have said we do not have much time.  A wrong decision now could prove very costly."

"We'll start looking tonight," Willow said, brushing off the warning.

Tara nodded her approval, looking more at ease then she had in weeks.  Everyone looked more at ease, except Zothos.  Everyone now seemed active and ready to research.  As the girls prepared to go on a book hunt, Giles gingerly pulled Buffy to the side.

"I could ask how you know this," he began.

"You probably don't want to know," she finished.

"Alright then," he nodded, "but still Buffy, please consider if the source of this revelation can be trusted."

"I have.  And it can."  
  
"Very well," Giles said starting to walk away and begin to help.

"Wait," Buffy said just remembering, "there's more.  Constance may try to use these things on others too.  She may be planning something, some type of attack."

Now Giles really stared at her.

"Don't ask," she responded, "not yet okay."

"Alright," he said starting to walk away again, "I'll be thinking of something just in case then."

Only Zothos left the house that night.  Everyone else stayed up late and researched into the night.  They had found several promising leads, many of which Buffy rejected outright seemingly for no reason.  Of course she did this because they didn't match the description Xander had given of the things, but she couldn't just out and out say that.  Not yet.

It was now just past two in the morning.

Joyce had gone up to bed an hour before and Dawn and Tara were sleeping in the living room.

"What about this?" Giles asked the two still awake.

Buffy and Willow turned to look at the book he now held out for them to see.

"A Phasma," Willow said somewhat doubtingly, "it sounds familiar."

"It's because we ruled it out an hour ago," Buffy added.

"Yes, I know that," Giles said somewhat defensively, "but the more I read of it, the more I think it may be what she'd use.  It fits with the type of magic and spells she prefers, it's from the Medea scrolls.  Greek."

"But it doesn't…" Buffy started and stopped abruptly.

"Doesn't what?" Giles asked giving her the odd look again, "Have you seen what she's using."  
  
"No."

"Well then, how do you know it isn't this?"  
  
"Xander told me."

"What?" Willow said loudly enough to cause the two in the living room to stir, "When?  Where?"

"I saw him tonight.  He warned me about these things.  Told me what they look like and what they do."

"He was here?" Giles asked shocked.  At the most he'd expected that the bond between them had somehow started working again.  Over the past few weeks it had diminished some, but given their run in the other night, he wasn't too surprised to hear she had new information.  This however was wholly unexpected.

"I didn't want to tell everyone, just the two of you.  He couldn't stay long.  He…"

Buffy suddenly stopped her face contorted in pain.

"Buffy?" Willow asked with concern.

"…he's… he's…." Buffy said shutting her eyes tightly.

"Get her mother," Giles said to Willow who got up at once.

"Buffy?" he said, holding onto her hands. 

Tears began to stream down her face.

And just as quickly as it had started, it ended.  Buffy opened her eyes and drew in a loud breath simultaneously.

"I felt it," she said, her voice hoarse.

"Buffy," Joyce said rushing in, "are you…"  
  
Giles shook his head at her and both Joyce and Willow stopped in the doorframe.

"I was there.  She's hurting him.  I was there and she won't stop."

Joyce looked absolutely white.

"She's so angry.  She's yelling and she never yells.  '… could ruin it all'  She keeps saying that.  '…should have listened'."

Willow felt a few tears slip down her cheeks, but didn't bother to wipe them away.

"It was so clear.  Inside my head.  I felt it.  He's…"  Buffy shook her head, trying to rid herself of the pictures, but they wouldn't go.

She stood up and looked about the room, as if just now aware of where she was, and then without saying anything left.  Neither Joyce nor Willow tried to stop her.

Buffy stayed the rest of the night upstairs, and Willow was sorry for it.  She wanted to go and comfort her, but just felt odd doing it.  Things were different now.  What could she say to make any of this better?  It looked as if things were hopeless.

She did, however, read over Giles book on the Phasma's.  It was interesting and she began to think like he did, that this would be what Constance would use.

Willow was the last one awake in the house that night.  Heading to the kitchen for some water she noticed something odd.  The backdoor was open.

"Willow…follow me…"

She'd heard this voice before.  Now, it was calling her outside.  Unafraid, she went in search of the woman whose voice she knew.

In the backyard surrounded by a gray mist she saw her.

"Lachesis," Willow addressed her, one of the Fates.

"You have not heeded my warning.  You have not listened to my advice."

"I can't kill my friend," Willow said nearly pleadingly, "We can't do it.  Don't you understand that?"

"Then this world is doomed," she answered stoically.

"How?  How is it doomed?  Because we won't kill Xander?  I can't believe that he…"  
  
"No one said you must kill him.  He is incidental in this matter.  His death will only cement this world's doom.  His will be the first of many."

"But you said…"  
  
"I said there were three.  The evil, the slayer and your friend.  Have you no other friends?"

Willow awoke with a start.  The sun was shining in the dining room where she'd fallen asleep.  Her mind was racing.  It was all starting to fit together, struggling inside. 

"I feel like we are friends," she muttered under her breath before turning to Giles.   "Giles," she said loudly to wake him.

"What, what is it?"  
  
"We have to talk.  All of us.  Now.""Willow, what on earth…"  
  
But it was too late, she was already out the door and half way up the stairs before he could get a complete reply out.

"Buffy," she called once upon knocking, and then throwing open the door, "Buffy, get up.  Downstairs, now."

Buffy was a bit surprised by Willow's attitude, and evidently she wasn't alone.  By the time she'd gotten the whole house together, no one knew how to act.

"Okay," she said once they were all together, "We've been going about this wrong.  Thinking about this wrong.  We've been assuming Xander is the key here and he isn't."  
  
Before she could be interrupted, she cut off all chances.

"Here me out.  Please.  I know that it's my fault.  It's because of me we even… but it was a mistake.  The Fates told me that three strands are the key.  Those three lives are affecting everything else.  I should have known that it wasn't Xander she was referring too.  It couldn't have been.  He just doesn't have that kind of power.  I thought it was him because they kept referring to my friend."  
  
Willow was really worked up now, pacing the floor.

"But we have other friends."

Buffy's eyes lit up, she had a feeling she knew where this was headed.

"New and powerful friends."  
  
She paused for a moment to regain herself.

"Lachesis visited me again last night.  She warned me again that doing nothing would doom our world.  Xander isn't who we have to get rid of to set things right.  It's Zothos."


	17. Open Doors

**Fury by SLynn  
  
Notes: Aurora and Eckles – thanks for all your reviews. Believe it or not, this story is finally close to ending. You've both really helped me to keep writing!  
  
Chapter 17: Open Doors**  
  
"So you've found me out," a voice said from the doorway.  
  
No one was really surprised to see Zothos there, these days anything seemed possible.  
  
"You knew this," Buffy said jumping to her feet without hesitation, "You knew it was you and not Xander that had..."  
  
"You shouldn't believe everything," Zothos cut in, "he is the one keeping us tied together. It's him that is the real danger here. Every moment longer that he lives, she gains strength."  
  
"Your strength," Buffy said flatly.  
  
"And yours," he added. "I was not lying. It is the only solution. He is the only one expendable..."  
  
"Expendable?" Buffy asked in disbelief.  
  
"Yes, and the only one we can be rid of. No one has yet found away to be rid of Constance, she is to strong. And you yourself are the slayer. The line no longer lies with you but if you die and the other is locked up, what would happen to the world?"  
  
Everyone was so intent on watching the exchange that only Tara noticed Willow get to her feet, softly chanting.  
  
"And alas, I am an immortal. You couldn't kill me if you tried..."  
  
Buffy felt and then saw something fly past her and strike Zothos squarely on the chest. The man, as he appeared, flew back several feet before hitting the floor.  
  
"What are you doing?" Buffy asked shocked, looking behind her.  
  
"Testing his theory," Willow answered, coming over to join her.  
  
Zothos was already back on his feet and not looking at all pleased.  
  
"You're not immortal now," Willow said meeting his eyes, furious and sick of lies, "You're all connected."  
  
"I would watch your mouth little girl," Zothos said, finally showing some emotion in his voice. As he spoke he began to emit a yellowish light. "I am still..."  
  
"Not going to touch us," Willow finished. Her eyes were still nearly solid black. "The same way Constance hasn't. Buffy was right before, he won't let you."  
  
"I think it's time you left," Buffy said determinedly.  
  
Zothos looked from one to the other and then was gone in a blink.  
  
"How did you know that would work?" Giles asked in astonishment.  
  
"Lucky guess," she said with a bit of her old humor, "but we've got to hurry. We've got to find Xander, quick. He will kill him. Xander is probably only stopping them from hurting us, he won't care as much about himself."  
  
"What about his parents?" Tara asked, truly concerned.  
  
"That was the Phasma's." Willow said with confidence.  
  
"No, it couldn't of been," Buffy interjected, "they weren't what he described."  
  
"That's not exactly true," Giles put in, "they can take whatever form the conjurer wishes."  
  
"They feed off of negative emotions, just like Xander said. It's got to be them."  
  
"So can we stop them?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Was Bella Abzug the first Jewish woman in Congress?" Willow asked in return.  
  
Buffy just continued to look at Willow.  
  
"Yes," Willow answered enthusiastically.  
  
Now everyone was staring.  
  
"My mother makes me learn these things."

* * *

Constance was disturbed.  
  
Few things bothered her. She was confident in her abilities and in her plan. But at the moment, she doubted.  
  
Something strange had happened last night.  
  
It shouldn't have happened, couldn't possibly be. But it was.  
  
She knew enough about possession and power, the types of dark arts that she herself loved best, to know when they were being used against her. But that couldn't be possible. Constance considered herself beyond that kind of petty interference.  
  
But she'd felt it just the same.  
  
Someone was in her head last night. Someone was peering into her thoughts and her doings. And she had a good idea as to who it was, but still no idea as to how. And that was the more important questions.  
  
Was the girl really that strong?  
  
No, that couldn't be. If she was that meant she was stronger then herself. And Constance knew no one was stronger then herself.  
  
She probably just got lucky.  
  
But she couldn't count on that. She had to prepare. Constance was never unprepared. Never.  
  
She also had a very good idea why she'd tried invading her thoughts. What she was after. It was an easy assumption. She wanted to know where they were. Wanted to make a go for herself and Xander. 'Free him' and save the day.  
  
That was fine.  
  
Just fine.  
  
Better to get it over and done with. She'd delayed long enough. Xander was ready for this, the final test. She believed in him. And it would be the final test. After this, there would be no going back.  
  
It made her smile.  
  
"Let the witch come," Constance unknowingly said out loud.  
  
Let them all come.

* * *

As Tara and Willow gathered supplies and knowledge of what they would need to fend off the Phasma's, Giles was giving serious consideration to the past days occurrences.  
  
It disturbed him. One thing very much in particular that he meant to straighten out as soon as he could.  
  
"Buffy," he said finding her in the kitchen, "may I have a word with you."  
  
"Sure," she said, following him into the living room.  
  
"I want to talk to you about what happened last night."  
  
Buffy sat down; she'd been half expecting this all day.  
  
"Tell me what you can remember about your vision."  
  
"Okay," she said steeling herself. It wasn't at all pleasant for her, but she would try. "I've been thinking about it myself a lot today. Trying to remember if I saw anything that might let me know where she was keeping him."  
  
"And?" he asked hopefully.  
  
"Nothing," she said with a shake of her head, "Mostly it was just..."  
  
She stopped un-expectantly. This was going to be harder then she thought.  
  
"Mostly," she began again, "it was just Constance..."  
  
"That's fine," Giles cut her off. This was clearly too much for her to relive, "That's fine. You don't have to go into specifics. I'm more interested in who you saw then in what."  
  
"I don't see the difference."  
  
"There is one. A big one. When you saw all of this happening, was it Xander or Constance you saw?"  
  
"Xander."  
  
"Uh huh," Giles said sounding a bit worried, "And did you hear his or her voice?"  
  
"Hers," Buffy answered, not liking the look on Giles face, "What are you getting at?"  
  
"If you'd have seen things through Xander, it would have been Constance you saw and him you heard."  
  
"Okay, so what? I'm possessing her?"  
  
"No," Giles shook his head, "Not possessing really. Channeling is more accurate, but still not entirely on the mark. It has to be the link. Maybe..."  
  
Giles trailed off, deep in thought, leaving Buffy to think about it on her own for a second.  
  
"Did she realize you were there?" he asked her.  
  
"I don't know," Buffy said surprised. She hadn't thought about it. "She might have, I guess. I'm not sure how it even started. I was thinking about Xander and it just kind of started to fade in in front of me."  
  
"And how did it end. Suddenly?"  
  
"Very."  
  
"Then she must have known," Giles concluded.  
  
The both sat in another half minute of silence.  
  
"There was..." Buffy began, trying hard to recall it all. "There was something. Fog horns I think. But it's so faint. I may be wrong. I may just be trying so hard to remember something. Anything."  
  
"No," Giles said patting her on the shoulder, "I'm sure you're not. We'll start looking at the wharf tonight."

* * *

Zothos sat back in his chair with a smile.  
  
It was easy. Very easy.  
  
Like opening a door.  
  
The slayer didn't have the right training to fully utilize the links between them and Constance, so sure of herself, would not give it the trouble. He alone would.  
  
He hadn't dared tap into Constance's thoughts. She would feel it, much as she had felt the slayer. It was too risky. No sense tipping her off that things weren't going as she'd planned just now. It was best to surprise her.  
  
And he planned too.  
  
Once the boy was out of the way, she'd be next. Then he'd be truly free.  
  
Free from this dimension and free of her.  
  
She'd trapped him here long enough.  
  
He hated doing it. No, not entirely true. Zothos was indifferent. Most immortals were. He had, after many eons, learned only to care for himself.  
  
As soon as he had learned the truth of why he was still stuck in this place, Zothos began to watch. He watched the boy and he watched the slayer. Their friends were of little consequence, but to be safe he watched them as well. That's when he discovered the link.  
  
The boy was tying him here and all of them together.  
  
He'd only twice gone through his head, and both times it was before Constance's return. Zothos felt, even with Constance away, it was too dangerous. She would of course be watching him, but he'd risked it just the same.  
  
That is when he learned of the boy's bond to the slayer.  
  
Constance was still unaware of it. Of any of it as far as he could tell. If Constance did know of the link Zothos was positive all of them would be under her submission.  
  
And once again her ignorance suited him fine.  
  
Zothos had begun to watch the slayers thoughts. Through her he learned of the witches warning from the Fates.  
  
It was perfect.  
  
All he had to do was convince them he wanted to help in the deed, reluctantly of course, and everything would work out fine. That is until the Fates interfered.  
  
The Fates do not like immortals. They care not for beings whom they can have no control. They almost ruined him.  
  
But they won't win. Now he knew. Now he knew where to find the boy.  
  
It was true that killing him would give him no joy. But it would give him release.  
  
And to the wharf he would follow the slayer tonight. 


	18. Into the Fire

**Fury by SLynn**

**Chapter 18: Into the Fire**

They were as prepared as they could be.

Tara and Willow had done their best in conjuring up about four dozen Selene's. From everything they read Selene's were the counter to Phasma's. Phasma's were conjured from the underworld, Selene's from the heavens. They should work but neither witch had made any guarantees.

Looking into her backpack filled with her supply of the strangely glowing orbs, they'd each gotten twelve, Buffy tried to be confident.

Besides the orb's to counter whatever it was that the Phasma's did, they'd each brought weapons and other supplies. It was difficult to decide on what to take. They weren't fighting vampires here and didn't know what to expect. Tara and Willow had mostly brought magic with them, while Giles and Buffy stuck with the more reliable swords and daggers.

It would only be the four of them.

Dawn had wanted to go, as if Joyce would let her. Joyce hadn't wanted any of them going. Not after everything she recalled of Constance. But she knew she couldn't stop them. They had to do what they had to do.

Tara had thought Anya might have been persuaded to go but after thinking it through she decided it was better not to bring her up. She didn't think Buffy or Willow would like the idea.

So just after sunset they left for the wharf.

They'd assumed it would be hard to find where Constance was, but it turned out to be much easier then they could have imagined. She might as well have put up a big neon sign.

Surrounding one building a block from the docks were roughly a hundred people.

It was an odd sight.

Across the street the four of them stood facing the crowd. No one moved. No one blinked. Giles coughed once, but that was it.

It was a sea of faces looking at them without seeing. Buffy recognized the look about them. Xander had worn it the night she'd ran into him in the graveyard.

"I don't think we made enough," Tara whispered to Willow who in turn nodded in agreement.

"Anyone happen to bring any tear gas with them?" Giles asked half seriously.

Buffy was too deep in thought to hear him. She was scanning the surrounding buildings, looking for alternate ways in.

"I think we're just going to have to go for the front door," Willow said to her.

"It's just so obvious," Buffy responded.

"There's always the roof," Willow returned.

* * *

TEN MINUTES LATER

"You know," Willow said her voice full of anxiety, "I wasn't serious when I suggested this."  
  
"But it was a great idea," Buffy assured her, reaching out her hand to help the red head across from one building to the next.

"Less talking please," Giles said clutching the ledge as he stood next to Buffy ready to help.

Shortly after the talk they'd gotten back into the car and driven around the block. From there they had gone up the nearest fire escape and onto the roof. Most buildings in the wharf district had roof top access and Buffy hoped that the one occupied by Constance was the same. They were four stories up and two buildings away and as hard of a time as she had getting Willow and Giles to climb from building to building, she didn't think she could convince either of them to go walking around on ledges looking for an open window.

"We're almost there," Buffy said again as the hurried across another roof.

In no time they made it. Buffy and Giles looked around them for the way into the building. Willow seemed to be collecting herself. Tara, curious now, wanted another peek at the crowd.

"How do you think she found them all?" she asked Willow.

"No telling," she responded.

"Come over," Tara said playfully, "They look like ants..."  
  
She stopped suddenly. First one looked up, and then they all did. At once.

"Uh oh."  
  
"What?" Willow asked, forgetting her momentary fear and looking over as well.  
  
The crowd had begun to move into the building.

"Giles! Buffy!" Willow called, "We've got to hurry!"  
  
"I've found a way in," Giles answered pulling on a rather rusty utility door.

"Stand back," Buffy said, yanking it completely off its hinges.

"Well yes," Giles said shaking his head, "that's one way of getting in."  
  
Buffy went first into the darkness, followed by Willow, Tara and then Giles. It wasn't a typical stairwell, but a ladder and the passage was narrow. After some time they finally reached an end. The ladder had led to a type of mechanical closest, likely on the third floor.

Buffy tried the door. It too, like the previous one, was nearly rusted shut, but she managed to open it after three tries.

Scanning the hallway, they spotted the stairs. Seemingly from everywhere they heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Okay," Buffy said hurriedly, "Willow, Tara. You check this floor. Giles get the one below it. I'll take ground level. Yell if you need help or if you find anything."

There was no time to argue. Giles and Buffy headed for the nearest stairwell, half praying not to find it full of people and relieved when they didn't, not saying a word as they parted one floor later.

Willow and Tara, fast as they could headed around the corridor. It wasn't a well laid out building. The place was obviously bigger then it appeared from outside and the foot falls of dozens of people were getting continuously louder.

Without speaking, each began pulling open doors nearest too them and checking briefly inside. They moved quickly, but not as quietly as they needed too.

Willow, shutting the last door in their current stretch of hallway closed, quickly recollected herself. Some one had been inside.

Tara had already moved on, not realizing Willow had paused.

Willow opened back up the door and looked again. Some one was sitting facing the wall in the corner of the room.

"Tara," she called as loud as she dared as she was stepping in, "wait a minute."

Tara stopped short but didn't turn back.

"What..." she began.

Willow held up her hand and indicated that she needed a minute.

Tara reluctantly obliged.

Willow took a few more steps in. She couldn't make out who was there.

"Xander?" she asked tentatively as she took a few more steps towards the figure, "It's alright. We're going to get you out of here."

Tara from outside of the room could just make this out, and although still extremely nervous, felt some relief.

"Are you alright?" Willow said, taking a few more steps, now just a few feet away.

Without warning the door behind her slammed shut and locked with an audible click. Tara rushed for it, but soon saw she had other problems. Six or seven very angry looking people appeared at the opposite end of the hallway. At the same time, inside the room, the figure in the corner stood and turned to Willow.

"I'm fine, thanks." Constance said smiling, "Much better now that you're here. I've been waiting for this."

* * *

Giles and Buffy both heard Tara scream. Giles, called out that he was coming and Buffy continued on as she had.

She knew Xander was close.

It was almost as if he was calling her to him. It was that clear.

She found herself turning down corridors and entering doors as if this place was her own home. She was being guided, first down to the ground level and eventually to a darker stairwell.

The basement.

Buffy opened the door and slowly made her way down the stairs. The room was very dimly lit and the further she went inside the harder she found it to concentrate.

"You shouldn't have come..."  
  
"Xander?" she called into the seemingly empty room.

"Buffy," he replied. His voice was strained. It was if forming words had become painful, "Go. Go now. You're not..."

If Buffy hadn't been a slayer she'd of likely been dead. As she'd approached the center of the room, listening for him, he'd flown out of nowhere at her. Only reflex saved her from the blow that ended up striking nothing but air. Momentum had carried Xander into the wall with a familiar looking axe in his hands.

"You have to go," Xander said again through gritted teeth. He was fighting for control over himself, struggling halfway between sitting down and lunging for her again.

"Xander," Buffy said taking a few steps back, "you can fight this. I have something to help you..."

Buffy reached for the bag she'd carried the orbs in with her but found it was no longer on her back. She'd dropped in, and nearly everything else, when she dodged Xander just minutes before.

In the strange light of the room, she couldn't see it anywhere. As she scanned the floor, she sensed rather then saw that Xander was moving again.

"Xander?" she asked looking to where he'd last been and finding the spot empty.

She turned in circles a few times knowing he was just out of sight. Buffy did the only thing she could now, listen.

In the dark she could hear him breathing. He was close. Really close. The silence was jarring. Finally, she heard it. He was swinging again, from behind her. Buffy ducked in time, but it was close. He'd actually gotten some of her hair as she dropped to the floor to take him down at the feet. In the dimness she felt her leg connect with his as she'd swung it around and hit him. She heard him fall and more importantly she heard the axe fall as well.

They were both up again in seconds, but she was quicker. She picked up the axe and made her way to where she thought the bag was. The light was better there, but she still couldn't see it. Frantically scanning the room and finally finding it, she raced to where the bag lay only to discover upon inspection that the orbs, fragile as they were, had all busted inside.

"Xander," Buffy said more firmly then before, clutching the axe in hand and dropping the bag, "Don't let this control you. Fight it. You can, I know you can."

"Control me?" he said in a voice she hardly recognized. "That's almost funny. 'Don't let this control you.' I've been controlled my whole life, but not now. Now I've been set free."

Buffy knew she was losing. Whatever was doing this, whether it was Constance or the Phasma's, they were winning.

"You don't mean that," she said forcibly. Ironically, she'd backed herself into a corner. It was the only defensive position she had left.

"No," he responded, "I do. I do mean just that. Even now, you're trying, but it's not going to work. Not any more."

Every word he said was painful to her. Not just the content, but the expression. It was undoubtedly his voice but it was so unlike him. It was cold and angry. She'd never heard him like this before. It was frightening.

"Please Xander," she said, readying herself for what she knew would eventually happen, "I don't want to have to do this."

"Well maybe you'll get lucky and I'll be the one who has to."

* * *

A/N -- Yeah, I know it's been awhile. Again with the writers block... I can't seem to get done with this story, but I am getting close. Tell me what you think.... I live for reviews! Thanks and thanks again. 


	19. The End

**

* * *

Fury by SLynn**

**Chapter 19: The End**

The end excuses any evil.

**Sophocles (496 BC – 406 BC), Electra, c. 409 BC**

Giles had little trouble finding Tara as, upon gaining access to the third floor, she promptly ran into him. There was, at the time, little either of them could do but run back down the steps and find some place to hide and regroup.

"What's happened?" Giles asked as quietly as they could once they were safely away and had put several doors between themselves and the crowd.

"I'm not sure," Tara panted, "I think it's Constance. I think Willow ran into her. I tried..."

She paused as they both heard a strange sound. A loud crash from somewhere above. Tara looked pained and Giles knew she was thinking of Willow.

"We need to get back up there and help," Giles said, equally worried.

"What about all of them?" Tara asked. She did want to help but they weren't prepared for this.

"We'll just have to make due I guess."

* * *

Willow had realized much too late that it was just a simple glamour spell that had made her think Constance was Xander, but she was alright. She had straightened herself out quickly and prepared to do what she could. In fact, she'd been waiting for this.

"So," Constance said with a smile, "once more is it? I believe the last time you and I danced together I came out on top, right?"

"Well, you did have the advantage," Willow said not allowing her concentration to slack, "I thought you were Xander, remember?"

"And you don't think Xander could hurt you," she stated coldly.

"He wouldn't."

"I imagine Buffy's finding out something very contrary to that statement. But you won't get the chance. I'm not going to leave as much as a piece of you for him to practice on."

"You talk a lot."

"I'm done now," Constance finished and sent dual shots of light from her hands at Willow.

Willow was able to dodge the first, but the second grazed her side and sent her back into the wall. The pain was intense, but she didn't fall over. She had steeled herself for a fight and wasn't about to back down now.

* * *

They had reached a stalemate.

For what seemed to be eons neither Buffy nor Xander had moved. She could tell he was out there, just beyond site, but not exactly where.

She still had the axe and the bag, but both were useless. The bag had nothing but broken magic and she just couldn't bring herself to use the axe and so she put it down.

"I can wait all night you know," Xander finally said. His voice farther away then she'd expected which worried her more. What else was down here with them?

"Is that what you want?" she answered trying not to let her voice show her nerves.

"You know what I want."

His voice was still distant. Farther away, but not too far. Now might be her only chance to sneak up on him. If she could maybe just knock him out and find the others, there was still a chance.

"When you're gone the others will be easy," he continued. Obviously spending so much time with Constance had instilled her habit of chatter into him. "Almost too easy. You're the challenge. You're the one that will prove to her what I can do."

Buffy still hadn't responded. She was almost to him. She could feel his presence again. He was less then a foot away now. One good hit to the head should do it.

Buffy knew she had to be quick. He'd hear her otherwise. So, as fast as her reflexes allowed, she brought back the bag to hit him with.

'Almost over,' she told herself, but was wrong.

He'd caught her arm before she had the chance to finish.

"That wasn't very smart."

* * *

Tara and Giles had made it back to the corridor where she'd last seen Willow. The hall was packed with people, at least three dozen.

"Which door is it?"

"The second from the end," Tara whispered in reply. Both were doing their best to be quiet.

Giles quickly stole a look and turned back to her.

"What do you think of a sleeping spell?" he asked.

"That I'm not powerful enough," she answered honestly, "not for all of those people."

Giles nodded. It didn't look good, but they had to try and help Willow. They couldn't just leave her to face Constance alone.

"We'll have to fight our way in," Giles said after another moment or twos consideration, "Use the orbs first, but try to save a few. Try to knock them unconscious, but not hurt them too badly."  
  
Tara looked startled at the thought.

"We have to help her," Giles said more calmly trying to reassure and persuade more then just himself, "It's our only option."

* * *

Willow was putting up a fight. A very good one even, but clearly she was outmatched. Constance was strong and knew so much more it could hardly be called fair. But she'd managed, to this point, to hold her own. But now she was rapidly loosing energy.

"What's wrong?" Constance called out to her, "Running out of spells?"  
  
"I've still got a few," Willow answered.

"Good. Because as far as I'm concerned the fun is just..."

She stopped abruptly.

Willow didn't know what to do. Didn't know what was wrong with her.

Constance stood there with a blank look about her. Then her face changed. Slowly a pained looked crossed it. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she emitted a noise, a scream, like none Willow had ever heard before.

The noise was deafening.

Willow, clutching her ears and dropping to the floor, caught just a glimpse of Constance as a blackness began to whirl about her. She seemed to be coming apart, becoming a part of the wind as it whipped up and blew open the door, racing down the hall.

* * *

Giles and Tara never got their chance to storm the hallway.

They two heard the noise, as did all of the people outside the door. Each reacted just as Willow had done, clutching their ears and dropping to their knees.

The noise had an equal affect on them.

They too just caught a peak of what was now Constance hurtling past them towards the basement.

* * *

Xander's eyes bored into hers with an intensity she hadn't yet seen. He only had Buffy by her right arm, but the rest of her seemed incapable of movement at the moment. She was stunned.

"I thought you were quicker then that," he said smiling.

"Xander," she said weakly, "Let me go. Please. You don't want to do this."

"No, I really do Buffy. I've got things to show you. For one," he continued wrapping his free hand around her throat and backing her into the nearest wall as he spoke, "I'd like to show you all of the things Constance showed me. Starting with your arm."

Buffy was now very aware that beneath his grasp on her right arm she could feel the bones vibrating.

"It's an odd feeling, isn't it?" he said with no trace of his old self at all evidence, "I'd like to say you get use to it, but you don't. Each time is different."

Up until this moment, Buffy had still been holding the bag she'd carried the Selene orbs into the building with, but now she was no longer able. As she finally let go and the bag hit the floor, an odd noise momentarily caught her attention. It was the sound, ever so slight, of something hitting the floor and rolling away.

One orb, at least one, must have remained unbroken.

Unfortunately, Xander had heard it too.

"What's that?" he asked, looking over to it briefly.

"I don't know..."

She stopped suddenly as she felt her neck begin to vibrate as her arm once had.

"...it's a Selene."

"What's it for?" he asked slowly. He loosened his grip some on her throat and let go altogether on her arm.

"Constance," she lied.

Buffy thought, momentarily at least, she saw a bit of the Xander she knew flicker behind the eyes now locked on hers.

"How does it work?" he asked again. Each word was deliberate and each word seemed forced.

Now she was sure she had his attention. Xander, the real one, was still there, still fighting.

"Bring it here and I'll show you," she said in what she hoped was a convincing voice.

Slowly he took a few steps back and then to his side, never taking his eyes off of her. She staid still, knowing one false move and he'd likely be on her again. It seemed like it took and entirety for him to retrieve the orb and bring it back to her, but he didn't hand it over. Not yet.

"Tell me what it does?" he demanded.

Buffy was at a loss. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what he wanted to hear. What would make him give it to her?

"Tell me what it does," he said more forcefully, "or I'll smash it into a million pieces and get on with what I was doing."

"It...it sends her back to the other dimension," she finally spat out.

He didn't look like he believed her. Not at first. But then, slowly she thought she saw something registering within him. He brought the orb up to eye level, finally adverting his gaze from her, and stared at it.

"You're trying to send her back," he said somewhat awed, "You're trying to help me."

Buffy knew this was her only chance.

"Yes," she answered.

With one quick motion she pushed his hand, orb and all, into his face.

The sound was like breaking glass, but there was no blood. Xander staggered back several paces and then completely keeled over. Immediately he was ill, violently ill and vomiting up what looked like black tar. Buffy wasn't sure if this was good or bad, so staying back she remained on guard, waiting for him to make his move again. But he didn't.

Xander, once done, rolled onto his side and gasped for breath. He wasn't certain what she had done, but he knew what he had. He had almost killed her. Was going too. Voices in his head had been, up until that very moment, encouraging him, planning it even.

He felt sick and weak and couldn't even answer when she had repeatedly called his name.

But a new voice caught his attention, not that he could bring himself to look.

"You all really make this too easy."

Buffy turned, startled at the intrusion. She was half way to going to Xander, certain now he was free from the Phasma's grasp.

There was Zothos.

"Not that this is easy, but it must be done," he continued. "I hope you realize it isn't personal. But I thank you for making it easier. I might not have been able to do what I must if you hadn't first weakened him."

Buffy rushed to Xander's side and helped him to his feet putting herself, as much as possible, between the two of them. For a moment Xander looked into his eyes and seemed to recognize him. Something passed between the two, quickly and then it was gone.

"Who..." he started to ask.

"It's not important," Zothos said dismissively, "Buffy, if you please. You may not want to see what is about to happen here."

It was then that lights grew brighter and the mist of blackness that was Constance broke through the door and into the room. The noise, still intense lessened and she became whole again standing with Zothos in front of her and Buffy and Xander just behind.

"You have no place here," she said, glaring down on him with more anger then they had witnessed before.

"You're quite wrong, because I do. I'm ending this. Stand aside."

"It isn't yours to end."

Buffy would have been more interested in the exchange if she hadn't begun to notice that Xander was leaning more and more against her with every moment. She looked up at him, no longer concerned with the other two and saw him struggling with consciousness.

"Xander," she said growing worried.

Constance's attention was caught. She looked back at the two of them, seemed nearly alarmed, and then turned back to Zothos and exploded.

"What have you done?" she bellowed. 

Buffy, no longer able to support his weight, was forced to set him back to the floor where he immediately went slack in her arms.

"I've done nothing more then I should have, if I could have, long ago."

Constance seemed almost at a loss. She started towards Xander and then abruptly changed her mind and returned to Zothos.

"Fix him! Undo this! Now!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. It won't be long now. A few more moments and his life will be gone."

Buffy was hearing it all but couldn't look. She was too busy watching Xander and fearing that Zothos was right. He was growing paler and colder by the moment, but was still breathing slow shallow breaths.

"You can't do this!" Constance screamed again.  
  
"Yes," Zothos said calmly, "I can. I have to survive you know. And as long as he lives..."

Constance caught the words eagerly. Cherished them. She knew what he meant, why he was doing this.

"...you can die," she finished.

Buffy had never seen anything like it. Lightning, it looked just like lighting; shot from Constance's outstretched hands hitting Zothos squarely in the chest. The man, because right now that was all he was, staggered backwards stunned.

Constance continued to hit him again and again. She didn't stop. Wouldn't. Zothos, perhaps out of shock at first didn't strike back. At first that had to have been the reason, but only at first. After awhile it became clear, at least to Buffy that he wasn't striking back because he was no longer able. Constance had killed him.

Xander, unaware of what was happening around him, let out a gargled gasp. It caught both of their attention and Constance, finally relenting, strode over to where he lay.

"Get back," she said tersely to Buffy before kneeling next to him. Buffy complied but was reluctant to do so. She didn't want her touching Xander, but knew she couldn't stop it from happening.

Constance looked down at him for a moment, seemed deep in thought and then placed a hand to his forehead. She didn't speak and no longer acknowledged Buffy's presence. It was like she'd forgotten she was even there.

It was at about this time that Giles, Tara and a very weak Willow made their way down the steps and joined the group.

No one spoke.

Finally Xander once more took in a deep breath and opened his eyes. Buffy felt a sigh escape her lips, but nothing more. She hadn't thought it possibly that he was still alive or could be.

Constance stood up and took a few steps away from him. Xander too slowly made his way to his feet, but stayed rooted to the spot going neither closer to Constance or Buffy.

"I could kill you all," Constance said quieter then usual and without much conviction.

"But your not going to," Xander answered.

"Did you know?" she asked him sincerely.

"I still don't think I do."

It all seemed surreal. They spoke to each other as if no one else were there, so oddly familiar with each other as they were.

"You can't hurt me anymore, can you?" he asked.

"I could," she said coolly, "but I'm not going too."

"Why should I believe that?"  
  
"Have I ever lied to you before?" she smiled.

Strangely, he smiled back at her, but shook his head as he did it.

The bond was gone. He knew it. She no longer could control him, could no longer see straight into his thoughts. That's why he smiled. It was relief to finally be alone.

The quiet that followed was short lived.

A mist seemed to form from nowhere, encircling Constance.

"I think this is finally it," she said, still unfazed.

Xander looked confused. He couldn't figure what was happening at first. Willow knew. Instinctively she knew.

The Furies had come to exact their revenge on being so wrongly misused. This is what the Fates had wanted to set right. She saw that now. Until Zothos was removed, they couldn't touch her because she was partly immortal. They had all shared each others strengths and weaknesses, but no longer.

The mist grew darker and more violent and hands now snatched out of it clutching to her arms, legs and skin.

Xander took a few steps away, frightened by the change.

"Don't worry about me sweetie," she said with a smile even as the hands drew blood from her flesh, "I can take care of myself. You do the same."

The mist grew and grew until it began to obscure her features.

"I'll be seeing you around," she called out above the din just before the mist completely engulfed her and disappeared into itself.

All that remained was silence.

* * *

A/N -- okay, hope that wasn't disappointing and it isn't over yet. I have at least one more chapter to go. Thanks again for all the reviews and mostly for reading what I write! 


	20. Aftermath

**Fury by SLynn**

**Chapter 20: Aftermath**

Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves  
Of all these demons haunting us  
To keep us company  
  
Won't it be odd to be happy like we  
Always thought we're supposed to feel  
But never seem to be

**Barenaked Ladies, "War on Drugs"**

In the end he had survived, but now he wasn't sure how to live.

Xander wasn't sure what he was supposed to do at all. He had no idea what to say, how to act, what to feel even. Aside from knowing, really knowing it was over at last, nothing else seemed certain.

Willow's father, he soon found, had been the acting executer of his parent's wills. While the case surrounding their deaths remained open, Xander wasn't considered by local police to be a suspect. In a town use to strange occurrences, this was just one more. Not that that helped him any. He almost wanted to be thrown in jail even though he now knew it was completely out of his hands and Constance really was to blame. Knowing that however didn't make him feel any less guilty.

The house, surprisingly or not left to his uncle Rory, was sold. Xander found that after all of this, when he could once more try for a relatively normal life on top of a hellmouth, he had no where to go. Not even a basement which had been bad enough. Of course, that's not to say he wasn't without friends. Everyone had offered to take him in. Joyce, Giles, Willow and Tara, even Willow's parents, but in the end he choose Giles. Without knowing why, Buffy found herself disappointed.

Xander worked very hard at putting it all behind him. He started by getting a job. Of course in reality, he didn't so much as find a job as a job found him. Giles not long after the whole thing was behind them began to think of reopening the Magic Box. Xander took hold of the idea with zeal and worked non-stop in the restoration. He showed even more enthusiasm then Anya once had. Giles was rather impressed.

And it wasn't the only thing he showed renewed interest in. He really struggled to be there for his friends again. Threw himself back into their lives almost, but only vicariously. He didn't really live it with them. Xander listened and interacted, but it was all very forced on his behalf. He wasn't out there experiencing anything for himself. Not yet at least.

Over the next few weeks he slowly began to look and act like his old self, but it wasn't the same. Thanks mainly to Joyce he regained some of the weight he'd lost and owing entirely to Dawn a part of his humor. But Buffy couldn't help but notice that all of the changes seemed superficial. He looked better, acted normal, was as much involved with them as he'd been previously, but it all felt false.

But maybe she only felt that way because of how he treated her.

Xander had begun, almost immediately after the end of the whole incident, to treat Buffy like a stranger. There was no better word for it. No better description. He wasn't mean to her, didn't ignore her or avoid her, but he didn't talk to her either. Not if he didn't have to. He had just shut her out and it hurt.

She couldn't imagine why and finally, after weeks of this kind of cold treatment, she couldn't take it anymore.

Finding him alone at the Magic Box was hardly a surprise since Giles was out of town for the next few days to gather inventory. He'd obviously left Xander in charge and since they were due to reopen in another week, Xander decided to work late.

"Hey," he said as she came in through the back, "How was the patrol?"

"Not bad," she answered coming over to where he was building a new shelf, "How's this thing going?"

"Not bad," he echoed without really looking up.

A moment of awkward silence followed.

"When is Giles coming back?" she asked, not sure what else to say.

"Tomorrow afternoon. He called tonight to see how things were going. He shouldn't have any problem opening on Monday as planned."

"That's great."

Again, silence. This was what it was like between them now. She'd ask questions which he'd answer, but never volunteer information on his own. Never start a conversation with her if he didn't have too.

"So," she blurted out, "are we ever going to talk about this?"

"About what?"

"Don't do that," she said somewhat angry, "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about."

"Buffy," Xander he answered in an equally agitated voice, "What is it you want me to say?"  
  
"I want you to tell me what's going on. I want you to talk to me again Xander. You're letting everyone else back in, why not me?"

"Buffy, you were never left out," he tried explaining. "You know things that they don't, that I can't even begin to tell them. It's harder with you because of that."

"Why is it harder? Xander I'm not trying to hurt you, I just want to know how I could go from being the only person you wanted around to meaning nothing to you that quickly."

"That's not true," he said flatly.

"No," she countered growing irritated, "It is. You're pushing me away like I don't mean anything. I did go through this with you Xander, I thought that might make it easier for you to talk to me about it."

"It doesn't. It just doesn't Buffy. And I'm just not ready to deal with it, alright?" he blurted out, "You are a whole separate issue then this, and I'm not through this yet. I can't handle it all at once. I'm having a hard enough time just with this."

"I don't know what you mean? How am I different? How am I separate from the rest of it?"

"Don't act like _you_ don't know what _I'm_ talking about," he said matching her earlier tone exactly.

She just continued to stare at him, dumbfounded.

"You were in my head Buff," he started to explain more quietly, "You have to know."

And suddenly Buffy did know. It wasn't about how he didn't need her anymore; it was about how he did.

"I didn't think," she offered.

"It's alright, it's not like I expect anything to be different between us now. I just need some time to get over it is all."

"Oh," was all she said.

"I'm not trying to make this weird," he continued figuring it was just best to get it all out now, "I'm just trying to make this easier on both of us. I just need some time and things will be back like they were before."

She nodded but not really in agreement.

"I guess I'm just trying to tell you that I'm not going to start following you around like some love-sick puppy or anything. I'm not going to get jealous or moody or anything like that if you start dating some guy. This is my problem and I can handle it. I can be an adult about it."

Her complete unresponsiveness was beginning to make him nervous.

"I just want us to be friends again. I don't expect anything more and I'm not even going to even try," he continued not really convincing either of them.

She still didn't know what to say to any of this. Didn't know what she felt herself while he continued deciding for the both of them.

"So that's it," he finished flatly but with sincere emotion, "I love you and I... I can't believe I'm saying any of this."

He turned away and started quickly towards the back room, Buffy fast on his heals.

"Wait Xander," she said catching him by the arm, "How do you... how can you just assume..."

It was the closest they'd been in weeks and Xander, feeling all the awkwardness of it, took a few steps back. But that didn't deter Buffy. She let her grip on his arm slip to his hand and continued to demand his attention.

"Buffy," he said looking down towards his feet, any where but at her, "we're well past that. I've always known how you've felt about me, and I don't expect that to change. We've been friends now for too long."

"Maybe I don't want to be friends anymore," she countered, moving in a bit closer to him carefully avoiding his eyes.

"Um," was all he managed as he too moved a bit closer, "I just really don't know what I'd do if you and I can't..."  
  
"Can't what?" she finally looking up at him.

"If this doesn't..." he tried to say, but couldn't finish as he looked into her eyes.

After years of dreaming about, wishing for it, and imagining it, it finally happened. Xander Harris kissed Buffy Summers.

And she kissed him back.

"I... uh..." he stammered taking a few steps away and a deep breath, but not letting go of her hand.

It was the first real smile she'd seen on his face in a long time. Involuntarily she laughed. She couldn't help it. She was so happy.

"Okay, ouch," he replied to the sound, but she knew he wasn't serious about it.

"No," she said smiling herself, "I'm not laughing at _this_. I'm happy."

"Happy we...."

"Kissed?" she finished, "Yes. Very."

"I am too."

"Good," she said nodding her head and feeling very self-conscious. "So no more avoiding me?"

"No," he said equally ill at ease, "No that I can assure you will not be happening."

There was another awkward moment. Neither knew what to do next.

"You're really..." he started, "I mean, you and me, really?"

"Yeah," she said smiling up at him, "I think so. You and me."

"Okay then," he answered stepping closer to her again.

"Okay," she echoed his answer and his movement, "Are you going to kiss me again?"

"I was thinking about it," he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"So was I."

**The End**

A/N – Finally it is done! Couple of notes here and thanks to all whom have read and reviewed!

I can not believe it took nearly a year to write this story! I'm relived it's done but also kind of sad. I've always felt that this would be a three story arc, but now I'm having such second thoughts I might continue on with it, but not any time soon. I've learned my lesson. Next time I will be much more organized.

Mostly I struggled with this story because I knew where it was going (most of the time) but didn't know how I was going to get there. Another huge struggle with 'Fury' was, almost from the beginning the ending was not going to be happy. At one point I was the closest I've ever been to killing off my favorite character Xander. This whole thing was originally, no kidding, going to end with Willow killing Xander and then finding out it was suppose to be Zothos. But I couldn't do it. And as soon as I knew I couldn't I knew Constance was going to be the one to in fact save the day.

Enough of that. If I do write a fourth, and again it will be a while since I'm long over due for a Firefly fic stuck in my head, it will very likely deal with the true aftermath of this event, Buffy and Xander's new relationship and probably a new big bad. I love Constance as only I can, but it's time to move on.

Thanks again to all the reviewers: eckles, Aurora Snowstorm == you both have kept me writing and helped me get over that dark patch. katrine, Calen (thanks for reminding me to putting some backbone back into Xander), Shpadoinkle, The Lost Slayer, Lady Moiraine, salvery, liptornm, David, hipchick, Louise, Randall Flagg, Brandywine421, danuamo, and Brooke1. I've read every review and really appreciate them all and do take your messages to heart!

Whew – okay this is starting to sound like an Oscar speech. Thanks again for reading. I hope it hasn't been a disappointment.


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